Over Rs58m relief given to plaintiffs

LAHORE:The Office of the Ombudsman Punjab has mediated to provide a cumulative legal relief of over Rs58 million to plaintiffs in response to 36 applications submitted to the regional offices against provincial government departments for the resolution of their problems.

The action taken by Ombudsman Punjab Maj (retd) Azam Suleman Khan helped Shamim Akhtar of Faisalabad to receive long-awaited pension arrears of her late husband worth Rs4105,155 from the health department after 13 years.

Similarly, it also mediated to ensure that the irrigation department pays Rs three lakh to Khanewal’s Nishad Akhtar as financial aid for her late husband. She received this amount after 11 years. The heirs of Shaheed Dr Bashir Ahmad, Principal Medical Officer of Services Hospital Lahore have been paid Rs eight million under the Shuhada Package while Rs223,279 have been given to two other plaintiffs of Faisalabad as the price for items supplied to DHQ Hospital Toba Tek Singh.

The different applicants of Lahore, Faisalabad, Sahiwal, Muzaffargarh, Attock, Nankana Sahib, Gujranwala, Lodhran, Jhang and Bahawalnagar districts have received a collective relief of Rs13687,058 in their family pension cases.

As a result of the separate action taken by the ombudsman office, overall relief of Rs1.742 million has been provided to the applicants of different cities in their cases of non-payment of the farewell grant, GP and welfare funds, scholarships and group insurance amounts, the spokesman added.

Meanwhile, individuals belonging to Gujrat, Faisalabad, Sahiwal and Rahimyar Khan have also been given over Rs7.7 million as pending dues of leave encashment, financial aid and employment dues after the involvement of the ombudsman office.

The livestock, buildings departments, highway division and district accounts office of different districts have also paid the pending amounts worth Rs2.11 million to complainants along with the provision of relief of Rs583,331 to the Arifwala-based subject specialist. Similarly, in response to the own-motion notice of the Ombudsman Punjab, municipal committee Kot Addu has informed that Rs14819,171 have been paid to the employees as salaries and another amount of Rs4731,407 is given to the pensioners.