The Federal Ombudsman Secretariat received 74,869 complaints in 2019, 7.59% more as compared to 2018’s 69,584 complaints, according to a press statement issued here on Tuesday.
According to the statement, increase in disposal of cases in 2019 has been 6.95% in comparison with the year 2018.
While addressing the investigation officers and appraising team at a performance review meeting for the period from July-December 2019, Federal Ombudsman Syed Tahir Shahbaz marked their performance as remarkable. He said that performance of all provinces in improving jail conditions under prison reforms project remained significant, however more work needs to be done to improve living conditions of the inmates. He also appreciated the performance of 12 federal government agencies whose one-window facilitation desks were set up at eight international airports.
While briefing on the six-month performance, Ejaz Ahmed Quareshi, Senior Adviser, said 38,902 cases were received from July to December, 2019 and 38,974 cases were disposed of. He said that there was 6.95% increase in disposal than 2018. He also briefed in detail about receipt and disposal of cases of all regional offices. He said that 170 cases were heard through WhatsApp/IMO/Skype during the months of October-December, 2019, from all over Pakistan and from foreign countries.
He also gave a brief view of annual performance and said that 73,059 cases were received during 2019 against 70,717 in 2018 which is 3.31% excess. He further informed that 74,869 cases were disposed of during 2019 against 69,584 in 2018 which showed 7.59% increase. He said that 2054 cases were registered through Mobile App, 11,289 through Online registration and 7,852 cases were registered through Integrated Complaint Resolution System( which were not resolved by agencies themselves within 30 days). He said that due to successful awareness campaign on the role of Wafaqi Mohtasib, especially in remote areas of KP and Baluchistan, number of complaints have been increased, considerably.
He said that 84% cases were disposed of within 60 days and only 15% cases were disposed of within 60-90 days. While appreciating the performance Federal Ombudsman said that quality of findings has been improved with special efforts of Appraising team and a very few number of cases were received for Review. The federal ombudsman said that although the year 2019 was a good year as far as performance is concerned, but awareness campaign would be continued in 2020 so that more and more people could be made aware of the role of Wafaqi Mohtasib.
