KARACHI, Dec 14 (APP): The Federal Ombudsman of Pakistan Ejaz Ahmed Qureshi, on Wednesday, said that the most of the complaints filed by public were against power and natural gas distribution companies.
He was addressing a press conference after chairing a meeting with representatives of different federal government departments and service provider companies here at Federal Ombudsman Regional Office Karachi. Senior adviser and in charge regional Office Syed Anwar Haider was also present at the occasion.
Federal Ombudsman said that power distribution companies and natural gas providing companies had a vast clientele consisting of millions of people that’s why number of complaints against them was also higher.Same was the case with other government entities those deal with public, he argued and added that number of public complaints against BISP, EOBI, State Life and Postal Life insurance was also higher.
Ejaz Qureshi said that efforts were underway to make federal ombudsman secretariat more active and effective for ensuring resolution of issues of public at the earliest and provision of relief to them. He informed that the secretariat had received and taken action on 110,000 complaints in year 2021 while the number of complaints received in the current year 2022 is expected to reach at 160,000. The Federal Ombudsman Secretariat (FOS) disposes off a complaint within 60 days while implementation on the decision was also ensured within a month or two, Qureshi said adding that compliance ratio in decided cases was over 90 percent while implementation in the remaining cases delays due to filling of appeal to the president or matter taken to courts.
He said that regional offices of the ombudsman were working in different major cities while open meetings of advisers were also being conducted at towns and tahseel headquarters to listen to and resolve complaints of people in far flung areas. Advisers were also directed to hold frequent visits to departments and organisations involved in public dealing like NADRA, EOBI and Utility Stores and resolve issue of minor nature on the spot and referring the major issues to headquarter, he said and added that the some issues were also resolved through mediation.The federal ombudsman said that FOS was also in close coordination with provincial ombudsman offices and departments and regulatory authorities to ensure remedy in cases pertaining to provincial departments and private entities.
Highlighting efforts for resolving issues of overseas Pakistanis, he said that a dedicated wing was set up in the regard and foreign missions were requested to reserve a day in a week to receive and resolve problems of Pakistanis working abroad who were playing a remarkable role in economic development of the country.
He added that on directives of FOS one window operation was launched at all international airports of the country where officials of 12 relevant agencies and organisations including FIA and Customs were deputed to facilitate the passengers.
