President Dr. Arif Alvi has called for revisiting the laws governing the institution of Wafaqi Mohtasib to provide speedy and free-of-cost justice to the people against the maladministration of Government organizations. In order to help and facilitate the Overseas Pakistanis, he asked the Federal Ombudsman to create a special cell to redress the grievances and rectify injustices done to expatriates through the maladministration of Government agencies. The President gave these remarks at a briefing on the role of Wafaqi Mohtasib, given by Federal Ombudsman, Syed Tahir Shahbaz, at the Federal Ombudsman Secretariat, on 15^th June 2021. The meeting was attended by Acting Secretary Wafaqi Mohtasib, Mr. Aftab Akbar Durrani, Consultant (Legal Affairs) President’s Secretariat, Justice Sayed Zahid Hussain, and senior advisors of Wafaqi Mohtasib.

                Federal Ombudsman, Syed Tahir Shahbaz, briefed the President about the achievements of his organization during his tenure. He apprised the meeting that Wafaqi Mohtasib had witnessed a considerable increase in the number of complaints due to its role in the provision of justice and a public awareness campaign through media and awareness seminars. He informed that Wafaqi Mohtasib had received 133,251 complaints during 2020 as compared to 73,059 during 2019, which is 82% higher than the last year. He highlighted that the implementation rate of Federal Ombudsman’s decisions was 99.6% during the year 2020. Regarding the disposal of complaints, the Mohtasib apprised that his organization had disposed of 130,112 complaints during 2020 as against 74,892 in 2019, which is an increase of 74% as compared to last year. In order to help address the complaints belonging to remote areas, he informed that new regional offices had been established at Abbottabad and Kharan to provide free of cost justice to the people. He further stated that the number of online complaints had increased by 7 times and reached 77,930 in the year 2020 from 11,289 in the year 2019. He informed that regional offices at Quetta and Bahawalpur had registered 643.1% and 302.9% increase in receipt of complaints during 2020 as compared to the year 2019.  

                The Federal Ombudsman apprised the President of the efforts to improve the living conditions of prisoners in jails as per directions of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.  He said that focus of his office was to improve jail conditions by removing irritants of criminal administration justice system. He briefed the President on the Education Sector Reform, Measures for prevention and control of Incidents of fire at Margalla Hills, controlling of Environmental Pollution in coastal areas, One Window Facilitation Desks established at 08 international airports for Overseas Pakistanis, and strengthening the media wing for enhancing awareness activities. He also briefed the President on the project entitled “Strengthening the Realization of the Rights of Women and Children Detainees in Pakistan” undertaken leading to improve conditions of prisoners in jails and Prevention and Control of Cybercrimes against Children, in which a draft bill has also been prepared with the help of parliamentarians and a National Plan of Action for awareness-raising.

                The Federal Ombudsman also apprised the President that the existing judicial system is costly and time consuming and impacting millions of citizens, therefore, there is a need for Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) and the institution of Wafaqi Mohtasib can easily accessible and provides, speedy and cost free administrative justice. It has credibility and institutional mechanism to work for ‘Alternate Dispute Resolution’.  The Ombudsman proposed to initiate a pilot program for the purpose of ADR.

                Addressing the meeting, the President emphasized the need for further enhancing the outreach of Wafaqi Mohtasib to remote areas of the country to provide speedy and free of cost justice to the aggrieved persons, at their doorsteps, against administrative injustices. He underlined the need to use the Alternative Dispute Resolution system for the provision of speedy, less expensive and hassle-free justice to the people which can boost the confidence and trust of people upon the judicial system. He advised the Wafaqi Mohtasib to create awareness among the people about the role of the institution in dispensing speedy and free of cost administrative justice. The President underscored the need to digitally integrate the Wafaqi Mohtasib Secretariat with the President’s Secretariat which would greatly help in the quick disposal of representations and public’s complaints as well as saving time and public money.

                The President appreciated the performance and contributions of the Ombudsman in redressing record number of complaints and dispensing justice to the aggrieved persons against administrative injustices.