The Wafaqi Mohtasib cleared over 30,000 complaints in the first two months of the calendar year 2023. The recurrence rate of complaints received so far in 2023 has increased by 56 percent as compared to last year.
The Federal Ombudsman Ejaz Ahmad Qureshi has vowed to resolve public disputes/cases of the lower strata of society through the Informal Resolution of Disputes (IRD) system on a priority basis.
Federal Ombudsman asked his Investigating Officers (IOs) to visit far-flung areas to resolve grievances at their doorstep in the shortest possible time.
He was chairing a progress review meeting of Investigating Officers at Head Office, Islamabad.
All the IOs from Head Office attended while 17 regional offices participated through video link. He was informed that as compared with last year 32,006 complaints were received with an increase of 56 percent while 30,132 complaints were disposed of with an increase of 53 percent in the first two months of 2023.
He was further informed that a 66 percent increase was recorded in receipt of online complaints. He expressed satisfaction over the disposal of complaints in the first two months of 2023.
The Ombudsman’s office resolved these cases by utilizing innovative measures and adopting simple procedures, without taking additional budget or employing human resources, he added. In the context of non-settlement of pension, gratuity, and insurance claims of poor citizens by the Federal agencies on the ground of non-availability of funds, the Federal Ombudsman called upon his Advisors to submit to him the details to take up the matter with the relevant agencies.
Qureshi directed the Implementation Officers to pay special attention to the timely implementation of his decisions to maintain public trust in the efficacy of the institution of Mohtasib.
Syed Qamar Mustafa, Associate Advisor while giving the progress of the first two months, 2023 informed that a maximum number of complaints have been received against BISP, LESCO, PESCO, K-Electric, SSGCL, MEPCO & AIOU. He said that complaints from Overseas Pakistanis rose from 13,019 to 25,215 showing a 93.6 percent increase.
The Associate Advisor further informed that 24,227 complainants were facilitated at One Window Facilitation Desks at Airports and 854 complaints of Pakistanis abroad were resolved through Pakistan Missions abroad.
The Federal Ombudsman advised the officers to serve the public in the resolution of their grievances and extend the best courtesies to the complainants.
Toothless fruitless white elephant. Burden on national exchequer. Badly processed perused complaints. Delinquents have no fear of this huge set up.