The departments interpreted the act on their own and denied information, a petitioner said. Tariq told this correspondent that he had filed two applications under the new act in the S&GAD and the C&W departments, but both of them met the same fate. He said he sought information from the S&GAD about dual nationality holding senior bureaucrats and their assets in the country and abroad. But the department has so far not bothered to share any information with him, he said. Through another petition filed with the C&W Department, he sought information about those officers who were found involved in embezzlement of public funds. But this was turned down by the authorities after a month or so, saying the information could not be shared under the relevant clause of RTI 2013.

Expressing disappointment over such responses, he said the image of the law he developed in his mind was badly tattered and he thought the mighty bureaucracy that runs affairs of the government would never allow implementation of the law in its true spirit. He questioned if the law fails at the initial stage of its implementation, how it would materialise the dreams of transparency in the public funds and boost democracy.

After the promulgation of Right to Information Act, it was expected that corruption-oriented public bodies would be brought to justice, but the denial of the basic right to share fundamental information by the S&GAD and the C&W Department gave a different picture altogether, the applicant lamented.

The departments are not only found guilty of overlooking law, but also misguide the sister organisations by giving wrong information as done in the case of C&W officers promoted to BS-19. The C&W concealed the fact that the officers faced FIRs and corruption inquiries. When the CM office took notice of it, the Chief Minister’s Inspection Team (CMIT) confirmed fraud in the process of promotion of the officers. The inspection team in its inquiry found several officials of ACE and the Communication Department responsible for sending the names of eight executive engineers to the provincial selection board for their promotions despite the fact they were not eligible for it due to the cases they were facing.

A senior officer of the Punjab government awaiting his posting said that out of Punjab’s total ADP to the tune of Rs 345 billion, the C&W budget for the current fiscal year is Rs 32 billion. “If transparency and accountability are to be boosted in the arena of democracy, what’s wrong with sharing details of billions of rupees project with public? Why can’t the information about successful bids and procurement processes be available? If the information is made available, it becomes more difficult for officials to engage in unfair practices,” he observed.

When the province passed access to information law, it was thought that the days for doing corruption and misusing powers were gone, but what happened was abysmal. He said by sharing information with the public, revenue collection could be increased while kickbacks and commission culture could be curtailed. Many countries are passing access to information laws to boost public awareness and deepen trust among people and government, he held. In addition to many western democracies, eastern countries like Philippines, Thailand, Japan and South Korea have also adopted such laws and experienced transparency in the public fund spending.

If the law fails to impose penalty on the public body head for unlawfully delaying access to information, the fate of RTI 2013 in Punjab would not be different from Sindh Freedom of Information Act 2006 and Balochistan Freedom of Information Act 2005 that have proven to be toothless.

If officials are allowed non-compliance with the law by hiding or destroying records, the commission will not be permitted to start functioning properly; if governments systematically abuse access rights, the commissioners may be overwhelmed with appeals thus straining their ability to resolve complaints promptly.

When contacted, newly established Information Commission member and former DIG, Ahmad Raza Tahir, said poor public access to information gives rise to corruption and secrecy allows backdoor deals to determine public spending in the interest of the few rather than the many. He said the provincial government had passed budget for hiring office and other expenditures. Initially, officers would be posted on deputation to run the commission affairs, he added. The rules and regulations have been formulated and forwarded to the departments concerned, the commission member held. He said the commission has started working, but with hiring of a proper office it would do the same formally. He said the online system of redress would be introduced to facilitate the citizens.

The Nation

He was chairing the first ‘RTI Baithak’ organized by Beacon house University on ‘Role of Civil Society in making Government system transparent’. He said that it is a general practice that budgets are formulated without consultation with the stakeholders and when budget is announced, people start hue and cry and then issues are re-examined and discussed. However, for the first time the Government has been consulting all stakeholders in budget formulation. He hoped that this time budget will be comparatively better and reflective of the aspirations of the people as well as the business community.

He said that today’s ‘RTI Baithak’ is also a positive step in bringing transparency in Government Departments as tax payers have the right to know where their money is being spent. He demanded that entire Government system should be computerized and replaced with e-governance system as it was impossible for any Government to have direct access to the each and every person. He said that Punjab Board of Information Technology is already working on this pattern and record of some of the Government Departments has also been computerized that is available on their website.

Zafar Dogar a senior journalist expressed its apprehension about the exemptions provided in the Act and said that in general practice these exemptions are being allowed to nullify the benefits of such important law.

Zaeem Yaqoob Khan , Director, Beacon house National University said that Beacon house University has already conduced three Baithak in Lahore for the sensitization of civil society in addition to bringing positive improvement in this Act Now three sittings are being held in Faisalabad followed by two in Multan and another three to be conducted in Lahore. We are preparing Logo and Video documentaries on the benefits of this Act and all these will be provided to the Information Commission to facilitate to start working in effective and efficient manner.

Business Recorder

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 Speaker Asad Qaiser, Minister for Information Shah Farman presented the bill on the assembly floor. The passage was supported unanimously with amendments based on the select committee’s recommendations from their earlier meetings. The K-P RTI Ordinance 2013 stands revoked after the passage of this bill.

“The RTI Act will make the government accountable on a daily basis to the people,” said Farman. Now people will not have to wait for elections to hold a government accountable, maintained the information minister.

Penalising freedom of information

“The act will make people stakeholders in the government as it will keep a check on the latter,” said Farman. However, this stake comes with a rather ominous caveat. He told the assembly, “Whosoever will use the law for mala fide intentions, we have made a provision to render it a crime.”

He was referring to the offence section of the K-P RTI Act 2013. In addition to other ‘wrongdoings’, clause 28 declares it is a criminal offence to wilfully “use the information obtained [under the RTI act] for mala fide purposes with ulterior motives.”

The clause further states, “anyone who commits an offence under sub-section (1) shall be liable to a fine not exceeding Rs50,000 or imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years.”

The RTI Act 2013 also contains exemptions regarding information sharing. Types of information which can be exempted from being shared with the public includes topics related to ‘international relations and security’, ‘disclosure harmful to law enforcement’, ‘public economic affairs’, ‘public money’, ‘privacy’, ‘legal privilege’, and ‘commercial and confidential information’.

The bill was not debated on the assembly floor as it was presented by a select committee comprising both opposition and treasury benches members. The committee incorporated 11 amendments and the assembly agreed to pass it without a clause-wise passage of the act or debate.

During the assembly session on 16th September – on a motion moved by Shah Farman – the house had referred the K-P RTI Bill 2013 to the select committee. With Minister for Information Farman as its chairman, its members included the late minister for law Israrullah Gandapur, deputy speaker Imtiaz Shahid Qureshi and lawmakers Syed Jafar Shah, Shah Hussain, Arbab Akbar Hayat, Ziaullah Bangash, Qurban Ali Khan, Samiullah Alizai, Muhammad Ali and Aamna Sardar.

The select committee held three meetings on October 3, October 7 and October 25 at the K-P Assembly Secretariat to examine and tweak the bill.

Early readings of the act suggest amendments other than clause 28 might not be as significant as the changes envisaged in the draft stages.

Express Tribune