Federal Ombudsmen should play their role for protection of public rights: President Dr Arif Alvi

ISLAMABAD: Federal Ombudsmen should play their role for protection of public rights against administrative injustices. According to reports, President Dr Arif Alvi has called for modern technology to provide speedy justice to the people at district and sub-district level against administrative injustices. The use and amendment of existing laws emphasizes the need to strengthen and improve the ombudsman’s institutions, as well as to increase their access.

He said that ombudsmen should play their active role in ensuring protection of people’s rights against administrative injustices and redressal of their grievances. The President also stressed the need to increase the access of all ombudsmen in remote areas and create awareness among the people about the useful role of ombudsman in providing free and speedy justice to the victims. He was presiding over a review meeting of all ombudsmen in the Presidency here on Tuesday. The ombudsmen briefed the President in detail about the performance of their respective agencies in providing justice to the victims.

Federal Ombudsman Syed Tahir Shahbaz briefed the President on the achievements of his institution. He said that the federal ombudsman had received 133,521 complaints in 2020 as against 73,069 in 2019. 130,212 complaints were disposed of during the same year. He explained that steps were being taken to set up grievance cells and facilitation centers to address the grievances of people in remote areas.

Federal Tax Ombudsman Mushtaq Ahmed Sukhera apprised the President of the steps being taken by the Tax Ombudsman to provide relief to the people on complaints against mismanagement in tax institutions. He said that the Federal Tax Ombudsman facilitated the payment of refunds of Rs. 8,242.45 million to the victims in the year 2019 as against Rs. 5,865 million. He said that the federal tax ombudsman has resolved 3410 out of 3715 complaints in 2020. Kashmala Tariq, the federal ombudsman for women’s anti-harassment, said her agency was focusing on protecting women against harassment in the workplace.

He said that 1,241 complaints were received during the year 2018-20 while the number of complaints received in 2013-17 was 398. He said that his organization has disposed of 1,133 out of 1,241 complaints during 2018-22. The Banking Ombudsman of Pakistan Kamran Shehzad informed the meeting that the Banking Ombudsman has received 20,220 complaints during January-June 2021 as against 11,174 complaints received during the same period last year.

He said that relief of Rs. 305 million was provided to the complainants while 14910 complaints were disposed of during the same period. Federal Insurance Ombudsman Dr Muhammad Khawar Jamil briefed the meeting about the performance of the Insurance Ombudsman in providing relief to the affected insurance policy holders.

He said that 3,107 complaints have been received while the number of complaints received in 2019 was 2441. Of these, 2183 have been disposed of. The President appreciated the performance and achievements of the ombudsmen in providing speedy and free justice to the people against administrative injustices. The President appreciated the performance of all the ombudsmen who have done a remarkable job in providing speedy and free justice to the people against the mismanagement of government institutions.

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