Justice at the doorstep

Pakistan’s Federal Ombudsman Mr Salman Farruki has taken the major initiative by providing justice at the doorstep of the complainant and directed his advisers and consultants to listen the complaints at the district level.

This step has been taken on pilot basis initially and Sheikupura, Nankana, Gujranwala, Kasur and Sialkot have been selected for hearing the complaints of aggrieved citizens near Regional Office Punjab, at Lahore.

This decision has been taken to facilitate the genuine grievances of those complainants who come to Lahore from far-flung areas early morning at their expense. Federal Ombudsman Office has its regional offices located at Karachi, Lahore, Quetta, Peshawar, Multan, Faisalabad and Dera Ismail Khan where thousands of affected persons and complainants throng to get their grievances settled against the malpractices, inefficiencies, neglect, inaction and corruption of various departments under the federal ministries and corporations particularly Wapda and Sui Gas. Federal Ombudsman has further vowed and resolved to reach at union council level to provide respite and relief to the poor and marginalized class of society and ensure justice at their doorstep.

It is pertinent to mention here that prior to the appointment of present Federal Ombudsman in 2013, 75,000 complaints were lying pending and there were cases which were more than five years old and there was no time frame to decide the complaints.

The immediate decision to clear the huge backlog was a daunting task ahead of this organization where complaints were primarily heard and disposed of by the officers of junior grades without any time schedule . Addressing these problems, the Federal Ombudsman proposed drastic amendments in the relevant laws, urged on strengthening the institution with an effective role for the federal and provincial ombudsmen and on the improvement in the prevailing system of Ombudsman to bring it in accordance with the spirit of justice envisaged in the Constitution. In this context, Federal Ombudsman managed to get passed Institutional Reforms Act 2013 from the parliament which clearly meant that cases would be settled and disposed of within 60 days after the receipts of complaints. This timeframe continued till the end of December 2014 but lately, the Ombudsman has issued orders to decide the cases within 45 days which is unparalleled and unique in the history of Ombudsman office in Pakistan and abroad. Another historic decision taken by the Ombudsman Salman Farukki was disposal of the cases in districts and subdivisions within 15 days and advisers started reaching to the doorsteps of complainants. No Ombudsman office in the world is providing such a quality and speedy justice. It is pertinent to mention that not a single complaint is pending for more than 45 days in regional offices and head office and more than 15 days in district offices.

As for the appointment of senior advisers, advisers, director general and consultants, they are recruited and selected on contractual basis from amongst senior federal secretaries, bureaucrats, ambassadors and judiciary and their decisions are carefully examined and appraised by a panel of competent senior advisers in the head office under the able leadership of Mr Ejaz Qureshi, former chief secretary. The contracts of all the officers, mostly retired, are extended on the basis of their six- monthly and annual appraisement by the Federal Ombudsman.

Unlike other courts, cases are heard on daily basis and complainants are kept informed through mobile messages about their scheduled hearings and in case any adviser is on leave or unable to hear cases due to sudden emergency their cases are heard by other advisers on the direction of in-charge Ombudsman’s regional office .

Federal Ombudsman Office has heard two lacs, twenty seven thousands cases during the last three years of the tenure of Federal Ombudsman Mr Salman Faruki which is a record since the inception of this office as the annual disposal of the cases has not been more than 16,500 cases since 1983. It is heartening to note that jurisdiction of federal ombudsman office has been extended now to FATA and poor people can lodge complaints against the arbitrary and unjust decisions of political agents.

On the basis of persistent and frequent complaints against some of the departments of federal government, Ombudsman has appointed grievance commissioners like national commissioners for children, overseas commissioners and pensioner commissioners. Another major step has been creation of one window desk of 12 departments at eight major airports of the country where complaints of overseas Pakistanis are heard promptly and their cases are disposed like other cases in Federal Ombudsman Office.

Additionally, all the ambassadors of Pakistan around the world have been advised to listen to the complaints of overseas Pakistanis once in a week. This has greatly helped more than ten million overseas Pakistanis. Then, on the direction by Supreme Court, Federal Ombudsman has also constituted committee of eminent lawyers under former Federal Law Minister S M Zafar which toured prisons of major cities and examined the poor and pathetic conditions of prisoners mainly women and children and took various initiatives like establishment of sweet homes, free education to children in jails with the help of universities and philanthropists. Recently Federal Ombudsman dispatched gifts among vulnerable children (the children recipients are 226 in number), 1390 women prisoners and 1480 juveniles throughout the jails of Pakistan.

And, first time in the history of Pakistan initiative has been taken in all 89 jails of the country for release of such prisoners who are unable to pay their fines up to 50000 rupees. Among fines of 23 vulnerable prisoners are being paid for their release before Eid.

These are the few initiatives undertaken under the leadership of Federal Ombudsman Mr Salman Faruki. They have transformed this institution as a speedy vehicle for justice and with the able assistance of competent, efficient and dedicated team. In November, Mr Salman Faruki was also elected as President of Asian Ombudsmen Association for four years where 82 Ombudsmen of 23 countries participated. No doubt this is a great distinction for our country and for the man who has achieved this has rendered dedicated public service for half a century. He is also the recipient of the highest national award of Nishan-i-Imtiaz for his public service. 

(The writer is Adviser, Wafaqi Mohtasib Regional Office Punjab)