The Growth of Administrative Law II

In the Subcontinent, the modern administrative setup, which included hierarchy of central, provincial and local services, was created by the British Raj. And, it ultimately gave birth to the unified form of executive. The creation of judicial system comprising lower courts, district courts, high courts and federal court was also envisaged to strengthen the system and to perform administrative responsibilities smoothly and efficiently. With the passage of time, economic activities continued to expand with new inventions and discoveries and responding to those became inevitable. It also warranted the promulgation of new laws, as well as rules and regulations.

At independence in 1947, a well-groomed administrative system was in place in newly-independent Pakistan to tackle the needs of society along with a response system. Right after its inception, the country faced many a problem but the system wasn’t strong enough to deal with the situation, and to live up to the people’s expectations. But, a strong will was there and the problems were overcome gradually. New economic activates started in the infant Pakistan and the administrative machinery started to expand. So, reorganization was a must to meet the challenges of expanding role of the state. Today, the administrative machinery in Pakistan is equipped with all necessary skills to deal with administrative challenges and new emerging concepts in the field of administration.

In quest of improving people’s social welfare, the state activism resulted into state intervention and expansion of administrative machinery with plethora of rules and regulations. In certain cases, it seems that the administration has assumed the powers of administrative despotism in the garb of interpretation of powers granted to them.

The need of an institution to check maladministration and administrative excesses effected the establishment of the institution of Wafaqi Mohtasib, in 1983, having jurisdiction over federal government institutions which fall under the definition of the agency. Over the years, the institution of Ombudsman has been strengthened by the creation of specialized and provincial Ombudsmen, but the largest chunk of complaints is still addressed to Wafaqi Mohtasib. It is notable that the number of complaints dealt with by Wafaqi Mohtasib is far greater than that of the similar institutions in more than 60 countries; reason being the insensitivity of the administration to deal with such problems.

The Institutional Reforms 2013 is a good omen. It will strengthen the institution of Ombudsman and a number of reforms ranging from early disposal of complaints curtailed to sixty days and mandatory implementation period by the agency has resulted into improving the efficiency of the institution. Similarly, the handling of representation to the President filed by aggrieved against the recommendations of the Mohtasib has also been streamlined with maximum time for disposal fixed to ninety days.

With the increasing activities of the government, the role and responsibilities of the institution of Ombudsman have also increased and the present reforms are just a beginning towards achieving the ideal of good governance and keeping the administration within its assigned role. Concluded