KARACHI: Dr Inam-ul-Haq Javed, appointed by the Federal Ombudsman, as Commissioner for Facilities for Pakistanis Abroad, said on Thursday that they have disposed of more than 40,000 complaints filed by overseas Pakistanis this year.

Addressing a press conference at Karachi Press Club, Dr Javed said that on the directives of the Federal Ombudsman, the focal persons dealt with more than 12,000 complaints in Pakistan’s embassies abroad while 28,000 complaints were resolved on the spot at all the international airports in Pakistan.

He said that during this time, the Commissioner for Facilities received more than 700 complaints directly from Pakistanis abroad. Javed said that the complaints of overseas Pakistanis were mostly related to property matters, NICOP and passport issuance, food verification and police verification.

He said that the Federal Ombudsman had appointed a separate “Facilitation Commissioner” to address the issues of more than 95 lakh Pakistanis abroad. In addition, “Integrated Facilitation Centers” have been set up at all the international airports in Pakistan, where the heads of government agencies related to Pakistanis living abroad would be available round the clock to address their grievances on the spot.

Javed said that the Office of the Commissioner has facilitated overseas Pakistanis by installing guiding Pana flaxes at key locations for the guidance of Pakistanis abroad. He said they also visited Lahore, Peshawar, Faisalabad, Multan and Sialkot airports recently and held meetings with the concerned authorities for quick and immediate redressal of grievances. Syed Anwar Haider, Senior Adviser in charge of the Federal Ombudsman’s Office, was also present on the occasion.