Karachi: The office of Pakistan’s central ombudsman has said that there has been a manifold increase in the number of citizens approaching it for the speedy resolution of their complaints in the last decade.
Most of the issues being resolved by the office are related to the service of public utilities in the country.
Ten years ago the office was receiving 20,000 complaints a year against working of government agencies and public utilities. The number has increased to 160,000 a year in 2022, Federal Ombudsman, Ejaz Ahmed Qureshi has said.
Qureshi was speaking at a press conference at the federal ombudsman secretariat in Karachi after holding a meeting with the representatives of government institutions and agencies for resolution of the public complaints about their work.
A large majority of complaints were related to the service of the electricity and gas distribution companies in the country as these entities serve millions of customers.
The office received 110,000 complaints in 2021 as efforts were made to ensure that a complaint was addressed within 60 days after receiving it.
Complaints of overseas Pakistanis
Up to 90 per cent of the decisions of the ombudsman office on public complaints were duly implemented by the relevant institutions and agencies as this rate of compliance was higher than that of any other court in Pakistan, he said.
Qureshi said that a separate wing had been established by the federal ombudsman for the speedy resolution of the complaints of the community of overseas Pakistanis. “Formation of this separate wing was necessary as these millions of overseas Pakistani send back to their native country remittances up to Rs32 billion in a year,” said the Ombudsman.
He said the Pakistani foreign missions abroad had been asked to reserve one day every week for listening to the complaints of the overseas fraternity.
He said the ombudsman office had introduced a “One-window” operation at all the international airports of Pakistan with the involvement of officials of 12 different agencies so that the overseas community shouldn’t face any problems during air travel.
Qureshi said that a dedicated helpline service “1056” had been launched to protect the fundamental rights of children and to protect them from abuse.
He said the office had collaborated with relevant non-governmental organisations and the Ministry of Human Rights for compiling a report on the issues faced by homeless children in the country.
The findings of the report will be sent to all the relevant agencies to get these issues resolved.
He said that an online system for receiving complaints and conducting virtual hearings on them was also being introduced by the ombudsman office.
