Australia to help Pakistan Ombudsmen
(Exclusive Report to Sada-e-Watan Sydney from famous Journalist, great Poet & Number one Broadcaster of SBS Urdu Service Mr. Ashraf Shad)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sydney: Australia has agreed in principle to help Pakistan for the capacity building of the institution of Ombudsmen. Yousuf Jamal, Ombudsman Sindh, who was visiting Australia on the invitation of Ombudsman of New South Wales (NSW), Bruce Barbour, told me in an interview that during his meetings the Australian federal and state ombudsmen have shown interest in developing bilateral relations and train Pakistani ombudsmen personnel.
“We can learn a lot from Australia as their ombudsman institution is working for almost 100 years. We may learn how they gradually increased the effectiveness of the system that is credited for cheap and easy way to redress grievances of the common people,” said Mr. Jamal who also attended the 9th Asian Ombudsmen Conference in Hong Kong on his way to Australia.
He said Pakistan may get the Australian help under Access to Justice program (AJP) initiated by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz for making justice available at low cost and accessible to all, and is funded by the Manila based Asian Development Bank.
Replying to a question about the success rate of the system in Pakistan he said from his experience in Sindh he could safely say 70 per cent of Ombudsman’s decisions to give relief to people are implemented.
“The system is only 12 to13-year old and we are working to create awareness and the outreach to attract people having problem. The best thing about the ombudsmen system is, it is non-litigation oriented and people may seek justice by writing a simple application to the Ombudsman,” he said.
According to Sindh Ombudsman, the questions were raised in his meetings with Professor John McMillan, the Federal Ombudsman of Australia, and other state ombudsmen about issues relating to freedom of information and protected disclosure legislations across Asia.
“We agreed that in today’s atmosphere when the world is fighting war against terrorism the biggest challenge is that civil liberties and freedom of information is not compromised,” he said and added that all agreed and appreciated the situation of Pakistan that has become the front line state to confront terrorism.
He said, like Australia, the ombudsmen in Pakistan should monitor, review and set standards for the delivery of community services; safeguards the best interests of common men; and should promote the rights and the best interests of consumers through its actions.
