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Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa comes bundled with long list of exemptions

By: Abdur Rauf PESHAWAR: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Assembly unanimously passed the K-P Right to Information Act (RTI) 2013 on Friday, but not without significant amendments. One such change pertains to ‘mala fide intentions’ which are now counted a punishable offence resulting in – at most – a Rs50,000 fine or incarceration for two years. During the session chaired by Assembly

Right to information

The Right to Information (RTI) article 19-A was inserted in the constitution under the 18th amendment for the people of Pakistan to get all information in matters of public importance but subject to regulation and reasonable restrictions imposed by law. The Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa recently passed an ordinance “The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Right to Information Ordinance,2013″ (RTI) by the governor

PM’s approval sought to reopen YouTube

ISLAMABAD: In a bid to reopen social media website YouTube soon in Pakistan, the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication has dispatched a summary to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, seeking necessary approval prior to his departure to United States, The Nation learnt on Saturday. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is scheduled to visit New York on 23rd of this month to

YouTube ban

YouTube case referred to LHC CJ for larger bench

LAHORE: A judge dealing with the petition challenging ban on YouTube on Thursday referred the matter to Lahore High Court chief justice Umar Ata Bandial with recommendations to constitute a full bench to hear this matter. The court during previous hearings had remarked that it was important to understand the nature of the problem. In today’s digital age, the court

YouTube and the pursuit of happiness

Pakistan enjoys nothing more than proving the wisdom behind the cliché ‘cutting off your nose to spite your face’. It is entirely appropriate that the phrase can be traced back to a time in Europe when women would mutilate themselves in order to protect their ‘purity’, since all our most self-destructive actions involve misbegotten notions of honour and morality. For

Pakistan’s internet censors seek help from Canadian company

ISLAMABAD: In a nondescript, creeper-draped building in the capital of Islamabad, a small team of men is purging Pakistan’s Internet. Shadowy government officials are blocking thousands of pages deemed undesirable. But they are not fast enough. So the government is now testing Canadian software that can block millions of sites a second. The censorship helps shape the views of 180

Freedom of Information Act

IN Pakistan, whenever our bureaucracies draft any law or document, it always seems ambiguous and controversial. The Punjab Freedom of Information Act is a good example, as it is a very confused act. This Act is drafted by bureaucracy without consulting stakeholders, while media and civil society representatives are available for technical guidance. In this Act, it seems many sections

YouTube ban: One year and counting

We have now completed a full year with the YouTube ban in place, forcing some to do without one of the most popular internet sites in the world, many others to resort to proxies of various kinds, putting up with the nuisances these ‘by-pass’ mechanisms cause. So, what has the ban, slapped on after an offensive film was loaded on

Dangerous times

Four months after the US-led attack on Afghanistan, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was abducted in Karachi and beheaded. That was only the first of a large number of murders of journalists we were to see in the coming years. Till a few years ago, no one in the Pakistani media could believe that a journalist’s handcuffed and tortured