Wafaqi Mohtasib presides over General Assembly meeting of Asian Ombudsman Association at Nanjing – China

Nanjing ( WNAM REPORT ):  The Wafaqi Mohtasib Mr. Ejaz Ahmad Qureshi has said that the ombudsman institutions working across the globe are striving to promote good governance, rule of law and efficient public administration. He was addressing the 26th Annual Meeting of the Board of Directors and the 18th General Assembly meeting of the Asian Ombudsman Association at Nanjing, China here today.
Mr. Qureshi, who is also the current President of the 47-member strong Asian Ombudsman Association (AOA) called for greater sharing of experiences and best practices amongst the ombudsman institutions. He added that ombudsman institutions are playing a critical role in providing free and expeditious redressal of grievances and streamlining the systems and procedures for efficient service delivery by state institutions.
The AOA Board of Directors, which besides Pakistan, includes heads of Ombudsman institutions from Azerbaijan, China, Hong Kong, Iran, Japan, Korea, Tatarstan and Türkiye took stock of the activities of the Association in the outgoing year. It reviewed activities undertaken by the member countries at the national level for the promotion of ombudsmanship and considered measures for upgrading facilities at the Association’s Resource Centre established within the AOA Secretariat in Islamabad.
The General Assembly meeting was followed by an International Workshop on ‘Effective Ombudsmanship for People’s Livelihood’ which was attended by a large number of delegations from the Asian region and beyond. In his keynote address, Mr. Qureshi, stated that ombudsmanship plays a pivotal role in fostering healthy environment where citizen’s rights are fully safeguarded. He also highlighted the role of ombudsman institutions in the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and stated that human progress remains the corner stone of all developmental efforts. Any movement forward in this direction, therefore, required regular exchange of views, sharing of experiences and best practices amongst the global ombuds fraternity and other stakeholders.