History
The term “Ombudsman” is of Swedish origin and in its ordinary dictionary meaning denotes “an official appointed to investigate complaints against the public authorities, government departments or the people who work for them”. The institution of Ombudsman has its roots in ancient times. The complaint handling systems resembling the present Institution were functioning as far back as the early days of Islam, and are still functioning in many Muslim countries. However, as an institution, the Ombudsman ship originated in Sweden about 200 years ago as a parliamentary supervisory body.
The institution of Ombudsman is aimed at protecting individual’s right without jeopardizing the efficacy of public policies faced by most of the societies in the contemporary world but the functional competence and the organizational structure of this institution varies from country to country depending on peculiar circumstances of each case. It is legally established, functionally autonomous, external to the administration, operationally independent of both legislature and executive, non-political, sympathetic to citizens, not averse to administration, freely accessible and practically having access to the documents relevant to the impugned executive decision.
The institution has proved to be an invaluable help to the common man as a ‘grievance redressal mechanism’. The concept gradually became popular in a number of countries from 1960 onward. In Pakistan, first it was set up at the Federal level in 1983.
The Mohtasib (Ombudsman) office AJK was established in 1991 through an ordinance. The legal base of the establishment of Ombudsman office in AJK is Act XIV of 1992.