Provinces asked to pay dues of federal depts
Sources said that there was a dispute between NPPMCL and SNGPL regarding encashment of Stand by Letter of Credit of Rs10.4b by SNGPL. PHOTO: FILE
Federal Ombudsman Ejaz Ahmed Qureshi has urged provincial governments to pay outstanding dues to the federal government agencies and departments so that they could address their financial constraints.
He was talking to media after presiding over a meeting of the heads of federal government agencies and departments including Wapda, Sui gas companies, postal services, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and others at the South Punjab Secretariat on Wednesday.
The ombudsman pointed out that the Federal Ombudsman Secretariat had disposed of over 134,000 applications seeking justice and relief in issues pertaining to the federal government agencies and departments.
“We are satisfied that 90% of the decisions given by the Federal Ombudsman have been implemented and applicants have been provided relief,” he said.
The ombudsman played a pivotal role in providing relief to tens of thousands of applicants including widows, orphans and other poor people, who could not afford expenses of filing petitions in courts, he added.
“The people filing applications have been provided relief free of cost,” Qureshi revealed, anticipating more applications would be filed with the ombudsman pertaining to alleged overbilling by power companies and Sui gas firms, pensions and insurance.
Saying that a large number of people had lodged applications with the FIA against cybercrimes, he urged the agency to accelerate their processing to control such crimes.
During hearings, the ombudsman was informed by focal persons of the federal government agencies and departments that the provincial administrations had to pay outstanding dues to them.
APP