Ombudsperson’s office: ‘Lack of public trust, awareness a key challenge’

Experts discuss unutilised role <br /> of Wafaqi Mohtasib office.

ISLAMABAD: A vast majority of the capital’s population is unaware that the office of a federal ombudsman (Wafaqi Mohtasib) is functioning in the city over the past 31 years.

This was revealed at a stakeholder dialogue on ‘Effective Role of Federal Ombudsman Offices’ organised by Human Resource Development Network (HRDN) in collaboration with USAID at a local hotel on Tuesday. The basic objective of the dialogue was to discuss the current status of the federal and provincial ombudsperson offices in terms of service delivery and strategise a way forward towards an increased public awareness about the grievance-redress facility.

HRDN Executive Director Suhail Awan informed participants that a survey was conducted in April this year wherein it was revealed that only 10 per cent of the population of Islamabad was aware of the federal ombudsman and its role.

“Majority of the respondents were of the view that Wafaqi Mohtasib is a government run institute which is inaccessible by a common man,” he said.

Mubashira Bajwa, adviser to the Wafaqi Mohtasib, said “It receives all kind of complaints except those against judiciary and armed forces.”

The body’s status is equal to that of the Supreme Court and it is bound to address complaints within 60 days free-of-charge and if it fails to satisfy the complainant, he or she can make an appeal to the president who is responsible to solve the issue within 90 days, informed Bajwa.

“The ombudsman receives 35,000 to 40,000 complaints annually but when compared to the capital’s population it is just peanuts”, she said, adding that last year however 100,000 complaints were addressed by the ombudsman which were pending for the last two years. “It is because the post remained vacant for two years,” she explained.

Educationist Dr Noor Fatima said the trust element between the individual and the state is lacking and efforts should be made to narrow this gap.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 1^st, 2014.