Federal & Provincial Ombudsman are appointed to safeguard the interest of public by addressing their complaints and other violations, but citizens believe Provincial Ombudsman Sindh has failed to work efficiently.
Normally investigations by Provincial Ombudsman may take months during which related parties are required to appear in the office of Ombudsman after they receive a letter. Citizens are complaining that they receive the letter after the date has passed.
The Office of Ombudsman claim that this is due to the poor service of Pakistan Post Office but citizens claim believe that repetitive delay indicates problems from the part of Ombudsman office.
A citizen showed us a similar letter by Office of Regional Director Karachi, Provincial Ombudsman Sindh in which he was asked to appear at the office of Ombudsman on 22nd October.
But he received the letter on 31st October, 2018 despite the fact that the letter was signed on 17th October (Check figure 1 in the image).
What is more shocking is the fact that the letter was received in the local branch of Post Office on 30th October (figure 3 in the image), seven days after the date of appearing in ombudsman office. This also indicates that the letter was posted after 22nd October.
Citizens claim that in many cases this is done to support one party because when the other party fails to appear the Ombudsman can initiate legal action.
The inefficiency of Federal & Provincial Ombudsman was also highlighted by Asian Development Bank (ADB) in their report of 2010. Many problems in the institution were highlighted with recommendations to make it more effective.
ADB claimed that ‘the selection process of ombudsman is neither independent nor transparent’, which should be a matter of great concern because in many areas Office of Ombudsman have powers of a Civil Court.
The institution of Federal Ombudsman was created in 1983 and it seems that government failed to upgrade the structure and working process of the institution.
Despite it’s inefficiency it remains one of the most important institution for citizens to lodge complaint against different departments of government.