MIRPURKHAS, Feb 21 (APP): Federal Ombudsman, Ejaz Ahmad Qureshi on Friday has formally inaugurated a Regional Office in Mirpurkhas.
Addressing the inaugural ceremony, he urged the government officials to redouble their efforts for providing speedy relief to the people.
He said that the institution of Wafaqi Mohtasib was receiving an increasing number of complaints as its outreach expanded and new offices had been established in Muzaffarabad (AJ&K) and Gilgit-Baltistan. “Now this office is providing services in 24 cities of the country and we plan to set up some more offices in the far-flung areas during the current year”, he added.
The inaugural ceremony was attended by the local heads of the federal government agencies there, apart from civil society members and the media.
Speaking on the occasion, the Wafaqi Mohtasib said that the outgoing year 2024, the office received a large number of complaints totaling 226,373, out of which 223,198 had been disposed of satisfactorily, marking an increase of 17 percent and 16 percent in the receipt and disposal over the figures of 2023. He said that more than 93 percent of the decisions had been implemented. He further added that our Investigating Officers held “Khuli Katcheries” in remote areas to provide administrative relief to the people at their doorsteps.
“The Wafaqi Mohtasib Secretariat is truly the poor man’s court, striving to dispense administrative justice particularly to the marginalized and the downtrodden segments of the society”, he observed.
Later, Ahmad Qureshi also held a meeting with the heads of federal government agencies. He called upon the government officials to intensify efforts for prompt redressal of public complaints.
Following the meeting, he informally spoke to the journalists and media representatives and highlighted the key initiatives of his office, like the Informal Resolution of Disputes (IRD), Inspection Visits, Khuli Katcheries etc. which had been instrumental in providing effective redressal to public complaints.
Lauding the role of the media in raising awareness, he said that they were playing a very useful role and urged the media fraternity to continue extending their cooperation regarding projection of this office so that the people of the country might become aware the existence of this forum for seeking free and fast relief to their grievances.