“The Federal Ombudsman’s Office is playing an effective role as a grievance redressal forum and mechanism for improving governance,” Federal Ombudsman Salman Faruqui said on Saturday.
He pointed out that a record number of complaints – 94,000 – were redressed in 2016. “More than 80 percent of the complaints were redressed through time-consuming mediation,” Faruqui said at a press conference here.
Backlogs of 75,000 complaints inherited from 2013 were also redressed. “Previously, it used to take up to a year to redress complaints,” he added. He stated that all complaints had been redressed within 45 days of their filing during 2015 and that there were no pending complaints.
The instant disposal of complaints within agencies was introduced in 2016 and complaints were redressed within 15 days through the Instant Redressal System. The federal ombudsman said that investigating officers of the federal ombudsman now hear and process complaints in the headquarters of 133 districts and 511 Tehsils. “Decisions are taken in 25 days time,” he added.
“Facilitation desks were set up at eight international airports in the country for the disposal of complaints lodged by overseas Pakistanis. A facilitation desk was also established at FPCCI headquarters and five grievance commissions were set up to hear and decide the complaints in the federal capital,” the ombudsman said.
“The hearing complaints of from abroad and national far flung areas through Skype and video conferencing was also begun. Dedicated phone lines 1055 for general complaints and 1056 for complaints by and on behalf of children have also been established,” he said.
It was further pointed out that new regional offices of the Wafaqi Mohatasib Secretariat have been opened in Hyderabad, Swat, Hub, Gujranwala, and Bahawalpur to facilitate complainants.