Someone, in the print media, has drawn attention towards an injustice being done by the PTV which is collecting Rs 35 from every electricity subscriber earning a colossal amount of money but he wonders where it all goes as there is no improvement in the quality of PTV programming. He says that the PTV is charging double the hapless people; namely, once through cable operators and then through electricity consumers. PTV silently increased its fee from Rs 25 to Rs 35 and perhaps without the approval of competent authority. Not merely as a conscientious civic minded but also the one paying this fee I raised this issue with the so-called protector of citizens rights, the Federal Ombudsman vide No ONL/0001107/10.
I knew what the response from PTV could be for which I had in mind a very logical valid argument at the rejoinder stage. On 24 March 2011 checking online status of my complaint I found “the complainant rejoinder not received”. Since then I am regularly drawing the attention of the Federal Ombudsman Secretariat that after filing my complaint I never received any further response from the Secretariat; hence, I repeatedly requested that I may be provided a copy of its communication (surely PTV reply) against which I am alleged to have not responded.
According to the then Federal Ombudsman non-response to public communications is an act of maladministration and his own Secretariat has not responded me at all during this year. On 8 February 2012, the status of my complaint reads that a reminder was issued to the complainant. Again, I never got it. Our whole ombudsman system lacks proper knowledge and importance of “delivery of notice” and I have in writing drawn several time the attention on this issue.
There should be no doubt, and this senior citizen is not afraid of saying this, in that the government departments are in fact protecting the fleecing of public one way or the other and they do not have any sympathy, even in words, for the common man.
JAVED
Karachi
