FAISALABAD  -  Federal Ombudsman was making strenuous ef­forts to facilitate the masses and in this connec­tion, the regional office had focused on Informal Resolution of Disputes (IRD) to pass on benefits to the grieved sectors of the economy, said Incharge Regional Secretariat of Federal Ombudsman Fais­alabad Syed Ghazanfar Mehdi. 

Talking to APP during an exclusive meeting here, he said that Federal Ombudsman had launched IRD program during April 2022 which had provided tan­gible results. Therefore, this mechanism was also introduced in regional secretariat Faisalabad so that the people could be provided speedy and free jus­tice. He said that regional office had so far received four complaints under IRD. The IRD had no need of fee payment to any pleader or bear the brunt of litigation or face long judicial procedure rather this program helped in resolving the dispute through an arbiter at preliminary stage, he added. He said that Federal Ombudsman had so far resolved more than 2275 disputes under IRD whereas 127 cases were under progress across the country. 

Responding to a question, he said that main ob­jective of Federal Ombudsman secretariat was to provide speedy justice especially to the poor, who could not afford heavy fees of the lawyers for liti­gation against government departments. 

He said that the regional secretariat of Federal Ombudsman had received 3967 complaints dur­ing first 8 months of 2023 whereas its decision and implementation ratio was 86%. The regional sec­retariat had decided 4595 cases from 1st January to 31st August 2023 whereas 901 decisions were implemented in toto so far, he added.