Regular progress reports: Top envoys start hearing complaints of expats

116 ambassadors submitting reports to the Federal Ombudsman

ISLAMABAD: Envoys to 116 countries have begun hearing grievances of overseas Pakistanis on the directives of Federal Ombudsman Salman Faruqui on a weekly basis without prior appointments.

This was stated by Grievance Commissioner for Overseas Pakistanis and Senior Adviser (Law) to the Ombudsman Hafiz Ahsaan Ahmad Khokhar on Saturday.

According to him, Pakistani ambassadors were submitting regular progress reports to the Federal Ombudsman Secretariat.

The grievance commissioner said that the federal ombudsman decided to hear complaints of overseas Pakistanis through video link, adding that they would be helped by Community Welfare Attaches (CWAs) in the first phase.



Regions where the federal ombudsman is hearing the grievances included the Middle East, the Far East, America and Europe.

Instructions for implementing the orders of the federal ombudsman were issued to the Ministry of Overseas and Human Resource Development and Overseas Pakistani Foundation.

He assured that steps would also be taken for increasing remittances sent by overseas Pakistanis via banking channels in coordination with the State Bank of Pakistan and the Bureau of Emigration of the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis.

He said efforts are being made to launch public awareness campaigns for informing overseas Pakistanis about the recent initiatives of the federal ombudsman, adding that the ombudsman encouraged Pakistanis working abroad to file their grievances against federal government departments.

When asked about the nature of grievances, the commissioner said that they varied from country to country, but mostly pertained to delays in issuance of passports and CNICs for overseas Pakistanis.

Furthermore, he said that the chairman of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) has been ordered to reconcile the pending lists of overseas Pakistanis with ambassadors posted in these countries.

A total of eight one-window facilitation desks have so far been set up with officials from a total of 12 related federal government agencies at Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, Multan, Sialkot and Faisalabad airports, benefitting at least 320,000 passengers and overseas Pakistanis, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 5^th, 2016.