KARACHI, April 22: The ombudsman’s office is providing easy justice to the suffering humanity without hiring the services of lawyers and the decisions are taken in the shortest possible duration.
“The aggrieved shall come to our offices only if they have a clear perception that their just and legitimate complaint shall be rectified by our intervention”.
These views were expressed by Sindh Ombudsman Yousuf Jamal at a one-day seminar on ‘Dissemination of justice and the role of Ombudsman in Pakistan’ held on Saturday at the Arts Auditorium of the University of Karachi.
The event was organised by the Department of Political Science, University of Karachi in collaboration with the secretariat of Sindh Ombudsman, Higher Education Commission of Pakistan and the quality enhancement cell of KU.
Mr Jamal said that the origin of ombudsman’s office was usually traced back to Sweden in 1806 but it was evident from the documented Muslim history such an office was established by Hazrat Umar Farooq (RA) during his caliphate under the name of Qadhi-al-Qadhah. Later, during the period of Ottoman Empire the same system remained in practice.
He said that his office was working on a grievances-redressal mechanism (GRM) with major objectives viz: expanding outreach of Ombudsman’s institution in order to make justice available and accessible to the common man, ensuring higher percentage of decision-compliance and making fast decisions.
He said in July 2004, the Sindh governor had approved five more offices while four centres were already operational. The percentage of decision compliance, he said was about 70 per cent.
The vice-chancellor of the University of Karachi, Prof Dr Pirzada Qasim Raza Siddiqui, in his presidential address said that the Sindh Ombudsman’s secretariat was effectively resolving problems of people of the province and providing relief in most of the cases.
He said that the masses could not live in isolation and the offices of Ombudsman was creating a link between the public and the government agencies in terms of providing justice to people and holding accountability of the government organisations.
Speaking as chief guest on the occasion, Sindh Minster for Planning and Development Syed Shoaib Ahmed Bokhari said the basic principle of the Ombudsman was that he or his functionaries should come to the rescue of those who were wronged in the society and removal of the problems of the wronged persons was justice.
Mr Ashfaq Ahmed Memon, Dr Shamsuddin, Dr Abdullah Qadri, Dr Tanveer Khalid, Dr Nusrat Idris, Mr Mahmoodul Hasan Butt, Dr Nadir Bakhsh and Dr Khalid Iraqi also spoke.
