KARACHI, June 20: Governor Ishratul Ibad has said that the government is utilizing all available resources to provide relief to people and resolve their problems and that strengthening of the institution of ombudsman is also in line with the same policy.
Mr Ibad’s remarks came during his meeting with the provincial ombudsman, Justice (r) Haziq-ul-Khairi, who called on him here on Wednesday to present the Annual Report-2002 of his secretariat’s performance to the governor.
The governor assured the ombudsman of all possible cooperation.
After the meeting, Justice Khairi told Dawn that the governor’s special interest in the institution had helped in resolving the issue of 20,000 allottees of the Hawkesbay Scheme whose amount — Rs700 million — was spent by the now defunct Karachi Development Authority and Lyari Development Authority (LDA) without acquiring the land properly.
He pointed out that a survey was now being conducted jointly by the LDA and provincial Board of Revenue and a report was likely to be ready by next week.
The annual report reflected the degree of success and failures of various government institution.
“Good governance is nothing but the other name of helpful and positive approach of the managers/executives while dealing with day to day affairs of the people,” the report pointed out.
It indicated that after enforcement of Police Ordinance-2002, complaints against police force had increased by 25 per cent as compared to the previous year.
The salutary impact of the ombudsman’s role as a referee changed with the function of righting the wrong is reflected in the declining graph of the number of investigable cases and not in the rising trend of the complaints.
According to the report, a total of 7,297 complaints were received by the ombudsman secretariat in 2002 as against 6,551 during 2001 and 6,637 in the year 2000.
Out of the 7,297 complaints, 713 pertained to the federal agencies and were forwarded to the federal ombudsman for necessary action whereas out of the 6,584 complaints against provincial agencies, 2,375 complainants were advised to first exhaust their departmental remedies.
A total of 897 cases were forwarded to the concerned agencies for action at their end. However, 1,594 complaints were admitted for detailed investigation and another 1,663 were refused admission for want of jurisdiction or some other reasons.
The break-up of 1,663 complaints, which were rejected after preliminary investigation, indicated that 101 were not pursued on account of non-response from complainants, 397 pertained to service matters, 539 had failed to establish maladministration, 391 were anonymous/pseudonymous. Similarly, 91 of them were private disputes, 30 were subjudice matters, 97 were time-bar and 17 complaints failed to prove personal grievances.
The delay in the disposal of cases constitutes the main cause of maladministration and of non-transparent working. This is followed by inattention, arbitrary action, administrative excesses, neglect, discrimination and violation of laws, rules and regulations etc., said the report.