MULTAN, Oct 23: The regional ombudsman’s office, set up in June last, has so far received around 2,000 complaints against various federal government departments.

An official said some 1,860 complaints had been received by the end of September last. Of them, 22 could be decided so far.

He said the office has been receiving on average 15 to 20 complaints, either by hand or post, daily. “As the regional office deals the matters relating to the office of federal ombudsman, it accepts applications against the federal government departments, including FIA, MTR, ADBP, Wapda and railways.”

However, majority of the complaints received were against the ‘excesses’ of Wapda officials.

“Most of our time is spent in hearing cases against Wapda,” Multan ombudsman office director general G. M. Javed Jah told Dawn on Tuesday.

Regarding a very small number of cases decided against the complaints received, he said a case took three to four months to decide according to the process laid down for the working of the ombudsman office.

Rally: Activists of various religious organizations held a rally on Tuesday to protest against the arrest of ulema.

They gathered at Hussain Agahi Chowk in the evening and were carrying flags of JUI-F, JUP-N, Jamaat-i-Islami, Majlis-i-Ahrar and SSP. They chanted slogans against the US leadership and its bombing of Afghanistan.

Speaking to participants of the rally, their leaders said that the ulema were protesting against the US and its excesses and not against the Pakistan government. They said that a movement would be launched to oust the rulers if the government did not stop its pro-US policies.

They demanded immediate release of their leaders who were arrested for protesting against the United States and withdrawal of cases against them.

They said that arrests and cases could not stop them from condemning American assault against Islam.