FAISALABAD: Officers from as many as 83 federal government departments have been allowed to exercise powers of Federal Ombudsman in order to resolve the public complaints of mal administration related to their concerned department positively within 15 days, disclosed Federal Ombudsman Salman Farooqi.
He was addressing a function in Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) here today which was also attended by the officers of Federal Ombudsman Secretariat in addition to the local business community. He said that office of the Federal Ombudsman is present in Faisalabad since long and efforts have been made to make it more effective and service oriented.
Continuing, Salman Farooqi said that earlier the appeals filed with Federal Ombudsman Office were resolved in months. However, now the Federal Ombudsman has voluntarily decided to dispose of these complaints within seven days. He said that in 2014, the appeals were decided in 60 days while in 2016 the scope of Federal Ombudsman was expanded to 130 districts and 500 tehsils across the country. “This arrangement was made in only those districts and tehsils where there were at least ten or more than ten complaints”, he added.
He told that from this year, a new system for the complaint resolution has been introduced under which the officers from different federal government departments are picked and allowed to exercise the powers of Ombudsman to resolve the public complaints. He told that FPCCI, Federal Ombudsman and Tax Ombudsman had inked a MoU under which the officers of Ombudsman Secretariat visit FPCCI offices in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Quetta and Peshawar to redress the complaints of business community on the spot. He told that full time grievance commissioners have also been appointed to resolve the complaints. He told that he is ready to appoint an officer to visit FCCI and resolve their complaints there and then if space was provided to him.
Earlier, in his address of welcome SVP FCCI Rana Sikandar Azam underlined the importance of the dispensation of justice and said that our judicial system needs radical improvements as the existing system is neither in accordance with the Islamic principles nor it ensures immediate dispensation of justice at the doorstep of the complainant.
