Tue, 21-Oct-2025

FIO building confidence in public to get speedy justice: President

justice
  • He said only few percent people knew ombudsman’s role.
  • Alvi said approaching ombudsman was easy way  to get justice.
  •  He said FIO was acting upon concept of providing speedy justice.

ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi said the Federal Insurance Ombudsman(FIO) was doing major work in building confidence among the general public to get speedy justice by following easy steps.

The president said only few percent people knew about the ombudsman’s role mainly because of less marketing and awareness campaigns.

He said approaching the ombudsman was the cheapest and most effective way to get speedy justice.

Addressing a Seminar titled ‘Insurance Ombudsman and Concept of Speedy Justice at the Doorstep’ here at Aiwan-e-Sadr, the president said all the five ombudsmen including Federal Insurance Ombudsman, Federal Banking Ombudsman, Federal Tax Ombudsman, Federal Harassment Ombudsman and the Federal Ombudsman were working under his office.

The subject Seminar ‘Insurance Ombudsman and Concept of Speedy Justice at the Doorstep’ is a series of seminars in which the high dignitaries of the insurance sector as well as from the business community were invited for their valuable views and vision for betterment and transparency in the insurance business.

President Alvi said due to his personal efforts, awareness among the people about the role of the Ombudsman had significantly increased. But still, he stressed the need to make more people aware of it.

He also highlighted the role of media in creating awareness about the Ombudsmen’s role and responsibilities adding that the good decisions by the ombudsmen must be publicized in the national print, electronic and social media.

He said ignorance was not an excuse, therefore the people should know about various ways to get justice through alternative means.

The president highlighted that in many cases the decisions remained pending for decades in the mainstream judiciary due to overburden of work and other flaws. Therefore, he called upon the people to utilize this channel which was relatively easy, more quick, and affordable for all.

He said Alternative Dispute Resolution was the solution to reduce the burden on the mainstream judiciary.

He also asked the insurance company owners to offer better products for the public to increase trust and remove doubts among the people about the insurance companies.

Generally, he said the perception of insurance among the general public was not up to the mark which needed to be improved by building trust among them.

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Ombudsman provides Rs1 billion relief to banking customers

Ombudsman

KARACHI: Banking Mohtasib Pakistan Muhammad Kamran Shehzad on Thursday said that his office has provided relief of around Rs1 billion to the banking customers. The relief has been provided by disposing of 27,658 complaints against the commercial banks during the calendar year 2022. While unveiling the Annual Report 2022, Shehzad elaborated that of the 35,265 … Read more

Guatemalan corruption at one of ‘worst’ levels, says ombudsman

Guatemalan corruption
  • Corruption in Guatemala is at unprecedented levels, says the country’s ombudsman.
  • Jordan Rodas claims institutions have been “co-opted”.
  • He accuses the government of persecuting former officials and independent judges.

Corruption in Guatemala is at unprecedented levels under an “authoritarian” government that punishes prosecutors and judges investigating organized crime, the country’s ombudsman told AFP in an interview.

“We’re going through one of the worst moments” with respect to corruption, said Jordan Rodas, the Central American nation’s top defender of human rights, whose five-year term in office is due to end in mid-August.

Before he leaves, Rodas has decided to lift the lid on the state of Guatemala under its last two presidents, Jimmy Morales (2016-20) and the incumbent Alejandro Giammattei.

“We are under an authoritarian regime. We have a masquerade of democracy but (it’s) very fragile,” said Rodas, who claims Guatemala’s institutions have been “co-opted.”

His accusations come after police on Friday arrested journalist Jose Ruben Zamora and raided the offices of the newspaper he founded after it accused key political figures of corruption.

In June, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) added Guatemala to a list of countries committing serious human rights violations that includes Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.

The IACHR accused Guatemala of “progressively weakening democratic institutionality” and “irregularities in the process of electing magistrates,” amongst other undemocratic processes.

Earlier this year, the United States designed Giammattei and Attorney General Consuelo Porras as corrupt actors.

On Saturday, journalists protested outside the courts in the center of Guatemala City against Zamora’s detention.

Rodas, 53, took office in August 2017 and within a week was already in conflict with the government.

He managed to prevent Morales from expelling the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), a United Nations entity working in conjunction with Guatemala’s public prosecutor on corruption cases.

The CICIG accused Morales of electoral corruption, alongside business allies previously considered untouchable.

But while Morales lost his judicial battle with Rojas, he refused to renew the CICIG mission in 2019 and the corruption investigations ground to a halt.

Rojas said his relationship with the government was “tense, oppressive, harassing.”

The state has got the upper hand since the CICIG left, says Rojas, by co-opting institutions and eroding the separation of political and economic powers.

He accuses the government of a “well-defined strategy” of persecuting former CICIG officials and those from Guatemala’s Special Prosecutor Against Corruption (FECI), as well as independent judges.

Several people involved in investigating corruption have gone into exile out of fear, including former attorney general Thelma Aldana and Juan Francisco Sandoval, the former FECI chief.

Sandoval, considered by the United States as a champion of the anti-corruption fight, was sacked in July 2021 by Porras.

Rojas says the international community “could do more” to fight corruption in Guatemala, including hitting more people with sanctions, including businessmen who “feed this perverse strategy”.

Last week, Washington sanctioned another 16 Guatemalans, including the current FECI chief Rafael Curruchiche, appointed by Porras.

 

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KTBA condemns FTO statement, demands resignation

KTBA

KARACHI: The Karachi Tax Bar Association (KTBA) has passed a resolution to condemn the statement of Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) Dr Asif Mahmood Jah, a statement said. The statement made by the FTO lately televised on electronic media/uploaded on social media is an offense towards the taxpayers and manifests his nepotism and biased approach in … Read more