Sindh High Court Justice Hassan Feroze has said that at the national level, most ombudsmen have a wide mandate to deal with the public sector.
He was addressing as chief guest at the seminar on “role of Ombudsman in providing administrative justice to the people of Sindh” on behalf of Chief Justice Sindh High Court, Justice Faisal Arab at a hotel.
He said that the major advantage of an ombudsman is that he or she examines complaints from outside the offending state institution, thus avoiding the conflicts of interest inherent in self-policing. However, the ombudsman system relies heavily on the selection of an appropriate individual for the office, and on the cooperation of at least some effective official from within the apparatus of the state, he added.
He said that the typical duties of an ombudsman are to investigate complaints and attempt to resolve them, usually through recommendations, whether or not binding, or mediation.
He said that in general, an ombudsman is a state official appointed to provide the government activity in the interests of the citizen, and to oversee the investigation of complaints of improper government activity against the citizen.
Justice Hassan Feroze said that ombudsmen sometimes also aim to identify systematic issues leading to poor service or breaches of people’s rights.
Addressing the occasion, Sindh Ombudsman Asad Ashraf Malik said that Sindh was the first province which established the office of the Ombudsman.
He said that it is a general perception that the courts do not decide the cases speedily due to over-burden. The Office of the Ombudsman provides inexpensive and speedy justice, he noted.
He said that total 16 offices of the Ombudsman have been established at district levels in Sindh to provide justice to the people at their door step.
Among other notables, former chief justice of Federal Shariat Court, Justice Haziq ul Khairi, Commissioner Karachi, Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqi, former accountant general Sindh, Zulfiqar Ali Qadri, Director SZABIST, Waheeda Mahesar, Vice Chancellor at Greenwich University, Ms. Seema Mughal also spoke.
