Sindh ombudsman received most complaints against police, education depts: report
KARACHI: Police and education were the top departments against whom most public complaints were registered and taken up for action by the Sindh Ombudsman’s office last year, shows the 2016 annual report recently released by the provincial ombudsman.
The report says that a total of 7,424 complaints were lodged with the ombudsman’s office in 2016, of which 6,816 were against the provincial government agencies and the rest of 608 were related to the federal government agencies. Some 3,197 of the complaints were admitted.
More than 40 ministries and allied departments of the Sindh government were nominated in the public complaints that were registered with the provincial ombudsman and the police department secured an undesirable top position by being nominated in 1,230 complaints. Some 463 of them were admitted.
The education and literacy department was found the close-second as people sent 1,155 complaints against it of which 529 were admitted.
Some 693 complaints were made against the local government department, 577 against the revenue and 309 against the health department.
The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, the Sindh Building Control Authority and the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board also remained among the top-10 Sindh government agencies against which 282 [196 admitted], 270 [179 admitted] and 243 [182 admitted] complaints were registered, respectively.
The sports and youth affairs ministry attracted least [two] complainants; as five or less cases were registered against social welfare, mines and mineral development, law and information and archives departments.
The report said relating to the provincial government agencies, some 3,111 cases were admitted for investigation under Section 10, which required registering a complaint on solemn affirmation or oath and in writing addressed to the ombudsman by the person aggrieved or, in the case of his death, by his legal representative of the Establishment of the Office of Ombudsman for the Province of Sindh Act 1991.
Some 75 complaints vis-à-vis children issues were registered for investigation.
Besides, five cases were related to the freedom of information act, two were taken under suo motu action and four others were conciliated by the office under Section 33 of the act.
It said some 1,358 complaints were forwarded to the agencies for necessary action, which included 11 children complaints and two others related to the freedom of information act.
Some 889 complaints were not entertained for being the complainants were anonymous or had used pseudonyms; or, had been deferred.
Besides, in 1,372 cases the ombudsman’s office advised the complainants to approach the authorities concerned or await action by the authorities.
Among 889 complaints, which were not entertained after initial scrutiny, 332 were pertained to maladministration, 258 were anonymous or pseudonymous, and 106 were service matters, etc.
Some 28 of them were time barred and advice was tendered in another 122 cases.
A total of 1,704 cases were decided, which included 303 against the police department and 301 against the education and literacy department.
More than 100 cases involving local government and revenue departments and 90 against the irrigation department were also decided.
The report said relief was granted in 67 per cent of the decisions taken in complaints in the past year; while, the remaining 33pc were rejected.
A total of 86 children complaints were registered out of which a whopping 76 were against the education and literacy department, six against the police department, two against the KMC, and one each against the KWSB and a federal government agency.
Since September 2009 to December 2016, a total of 551 children complaints were got registered.
Again, the education and literacy department was the agency against which a huge 402 cases were registered, of which, 196 were decided.
Similarly, out of 91 complaints against the police, 67 were decided. Besides, 17 cases were registered against the health department and nine of them had been decided.
Other departments and ministries included Zakat and Ushr, revenue, works and services, KMC, irrigation, LG, labour, public health engineering, KWSB, and excise and taxation.
Most of children complaints [211] were registered at the ombudsman’s headquarters, 23 of them in Karachi East, 21 in Karachi Central, 49 in Hyderabad, 39 in Mirpurkhas, five in Thar, 26 in Larkana, 14 in Sukkur, 17 in Khairpur, 49 in Benazirabad, 16 in Naushehro Feroze, 17 each in Jacobabad and Badin, 16 in Dadu, 19 in Thatta, nine in Ghotki and three in Karachi South district.
The report said so far up to 2016, the ombudsman’s office received 174,726 public complaints of which 57,812 were admitted.
Some 27,904 complaints were registered against the police department of which 9,056 were admitted.
Education and literacy remained second as 22,126 cases were registered against it and 8,255 of them were admitted.
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