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KARACHI, Sept 24: Sindh Ombudsman Justice (r) Haziqul Khairi has suggested establishment of a specific office of ombudsman in view of the inordinate delay in the dispensation of justice in hundreds of cases pending for years before lower courts. Such offices have been functioning in Sweden where complaints about delay in disposing of cases are lodged with ombudsman instead of courts of law, he pointed out.
The proposed offices, he said, would provide considerable relief to judges from extra pressure and also to the public who would be able to get their cases disposed of early as evident from the practice in Sweden.
Justice Khairi, whose four-year tenure as Sindh Ombudsman completed on Wednesday, was talking to Dawn in his office.
In reply to a question, he said: “I feel very much relieved and satisfied with my performance in restoring justice to the common man. I made every possible effort to see the institution emerge stronger and more effective so as to deliver.”
He said that all his efforts, during the tenure, had been aimed at contributing whatever he could for the betterment of the city and the province as an ombudsman.
When asked if he would like to make any suggestion with regard to his successor, Justice Khairi said there should be no political consideration in the appointment of the new ombudsman. It must purely be on merit and that, too, from the judiciary.
He indicated that over the years, the office of the ombudsman had emerged as a high-profile institution in which people had pinned great expectations. Any appointment with political consideration may demolish the institution, he added.
During the tenure of Justice Khairi, a total of 6,794 out of 27,557 complaints were admitted and relief was provided in 3,989 cases making it 77 per cent of the total complaints.
He is the first ombudsman of Sindh to have invoked section 33 and helped provide relief in 77 cases. The section reads: “Notwithstanding anything contained in this act, the ombudsman and a member of the staff shall have the authority to informally conciliate, amicably resolve, stipulate, settle or ameliorate any grievance without written memorandum and without the necessity of docketing any complaint or issuing any official notice.
SEGREGATION: The Sindh Ombudsman Committee on Prisons, after visiting various jails in the province, has expressed its concern over the intermingling of convicted and under-trial prisoners. It has recommended segregation of the two categories as per the prison rules.
The committee was constituted by the Ombudsman of Sindh, Justice (r) Haziqul Khairi, taking cognizance of the situation where there had been a large number of complaints with regard to the conditions in Sindh prisons.
With the ombudsman’s secretary, Aijazuddin Kazi, as its chairman, the committee has advisers Yusuf Jamal and Nasim Haider, and the District and Sessions Judge, Zafar Sherwani, as its members. It visited the Central Prison Karachi, Women and Juvenile Jail, Central Jail Hyderabad, District Jail Nawabshah, Central Jail Sukkur and Central Jail Khairpur.
The committee expressed its resentment over the inhuman treatment being meted out to the prisoners who are subjected to forced labour.
The committee emphasized on the construction of criminal courts within the vicinity of prisons, as already approved by the government, for an expeditious disposal of cases.
Regarding the chronic problem of over-crowding in jails, the committee observed that this was a clear case of an immediate construction of additional prisons in the limits of towns and talukas.
