Ombudsman Office resolves over 160,000 cases in 2022: official

PESHAWAR: Federal Ombudsman Office has addressed more than 160,000 cases in the year 2022.

Briefing media at the Civil Secretariat, Federal Ombudsman Ejaz Ahmad Qureshi said the office resolved the cases through innovative measures and adopting simple procedures, which helped resolve 50% more complaints during 2022, compared to 2021.

He said that there was 100% increase recorded in online disposal of cases. Hearings of complaints were also conducted online when requested by the complainants with the vision to provide justice at doorstep, he added.

He further said that performance targets for the investigating officers and advisors had been enhanced to more than 100% during 2022.

He said that speedy and inexpensive justice was ensured through frequent inspections of public service organisations and conducting public forums through the 17 regional offices around the country.

He said that the Wafaqi Mohtasib evinced special focus to overseas Pakistanis and 133% increase was recorded in disposal of their cases during 2022 through improvement in service delivery.

He said that four more regional offices and two Complaint Collection Centers have been opened at Mirpurkhas, Khuzdar, Swat, Kharan, Sadda District Kurram and Wana (South Waziristan).

He further stated that people’s trust had immensely increased resulting in a dramatic increase in the registration of complaints and complaints worth over Rs3 billion were addressed by this office during the last year, otherwise these cases would have added burden to the civil courts.