Federal Ombudsman Salman Farooqi calls on the President of Pakistan

Lahore: President Mamnoon Hussain Tuesday said that the Wafaqi Mohtasib Secretariat should continue efforts for providing expeditious relief to common man by dispensing justice at their doorsteps.

The President was talking to Federal Ombudsman Salman Faruqui who called on him at the Aiwan-e-Sadr.

On the occasion, Federal Ombudsman also presented Annual Report-2015 of the institution to the President, said a press release.

Highlighting the importance of institution of Federal Ombudsman, the President said that it was playing an effective role in addressing the grievances of people.

The President praised the performance of Federal Ombudsman institution in the previous year for addressing more than 55,000 complaints within the stipulated time frame with zero pendency. He expressed satisfaction that the ratio of appeal against the decisions of Ombudsman had been below 1% and 90% of its appealed decisions had been upheld.

The President commended Federal Ombudsman for addressing public complaints at the grassroots level and reducing the period of decisions from 60 to 45 days. He noted with satisfaction that under the pilot project and at tehsil level, the Wafaqi Mohtasib aimed to finalise decisions within a short period of 15 days.

The President said that the provision of justice by the Ombudsman’s Secretariat at the doorsteps of the people in different areas of the country would provide cheap and expeditious justice to the aggrieved persons. He appreciated Federal Ombudsman for paying special attention to resolve the issues of pensioners and directing all government institutions to complete the pension cases of government servants before their retirement.

The President praised the dedicated efforts of members of sub committees of the institution of Federal Ombudsman for addressing systemic complaints and presenting reports for improvement in the working of various departments. He also directed Federal Ombudsman to take more concrete measures to further improve its performance and also benefit from the experiences of other countries in this regard.

The Federal Ombudsman apprised the President about the salient features of the annual report and briefed him about the overall performance of his Secretariat.

Federal Ombudsman Salman Faruqui talking to APP after presenting the report, said that when he assumed the charge 2013, a total of 75,000 complaints were pending and there was no time frame for deciding the cases.

In view of the situation, he submitted a proposal for standardization of statutes and early disposal of complaints, which was passed by the Parliament and promulgated as Federal Ombudsmen Institutional Reforms Act 2013.

Under the Reforms Act, it was now mandatory to decide every complaint within 60 days. He added that further acceleration in disposal of complaints was made in 2015, after which the complaints were now decided in 45 days.

Faruqui further stated that under the pilot project of Swift Complaint Resolution (SCR), complaints were being redressed within 15 days at complaints doorsteps.