Ombudsman
Federal and provincial Ombudsman offices, and the specialist Ombudsmen.
The forum
The Ombudsman offices — federal, provincial and the specialist ones for insurance, banking and taxation — hear complaints of maladministration. Proceedings are less formal than a court, and often quicker. Complaints are decided on the papers more often than at a hearing, and the recommendation that follows can be taken further to the President or the Governor depending on the office.
Where it sits
The principal seat is Islamabad. It also sits at Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Quetta, Multan, Faisalabad, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Rawalpindi, Muzaffarabad and Gilgit. A date given at one is not a date at another, which is why the bench belongs in the record with the date.
What a firm has to track
Informal does not mean untracked. These matters have dates and they have outcomes, and a firm that keeps them outside its diary because they are "not court" is the firm that misses one. What catches firms out is that the clock runs on the representation stage after a decision. A diary that records only hearings misses a deadline that has no hearing attached to it at all.
The date the court gives is a fact. Whoever is standing there records it in CaseMate before they leave the building, and the office acknowledges it — it does not wait to be approved.
The firm decides who goes to the next hearing, against the hearing itself. A matter at a distant bench is a travel arrangement, not a line in a list.
Every previous date, its outcome and the note taken at the time — so a partner can be answered without opening the file.
A hearing in the past with nothing recorded against it is the one thing a diary must never hide. CaseMate lists them separately.
Start with today's list.
Set your firm up in a couple of minutes, enter the cases you are running this week, and let your associates report from court.