Federal Ombudsman (FO) Ejaz Ahmad Qureshi directed regional heads of federal agencies to provide prompt relief against outstanding public complaints. Addressing a press conference here on Friday, he directed the heads of federal agencies, including MEPCO, SLICP, NADRA, USC, BISP and FIA to extend maximum cooperation to the regional office of Wafaqi Mohtasib Secretariat. He also directed the officers of FO regional office to implement his decisions in letter and spirit. He said open courts would be conducted to resolve public grievances on the spot. Giving highlights of the past year achievement, he said a record number of complaints i.e over 164,174 were received during 2022. About 157,770 complaints were disposed as compared to 110,405 registered in the preceding year with 106,823 disposed out of them, he maintained. He said various initiatives were taken by his office to address the complainants. It included facilitating overseas Pakistanis, cases of pensioners, and prisoners, especially the women and children in prisons. Protection of street children, and cybercrime matters were also resolved in stipulated time, he added. He also spoke about outreach and disposal of complaints through modern IT tools. He emphasized to disseminate his message to all and sundry so that the poor and helpless citizens could approach his free of charge, and easily accessible forum for resolution of their grievances against mal-administration by the government agencies.