Year-ender: PIC passed 2500 orders in 2021

The Punjab information Commission (PIC) has claimed that it has passed around 2,500 orders and resolved 89 per cent of complaints in the Year of 2021.

Information availed through the Right to Information shows that the provincial information commission out of the 2,122 registered complaints received last year, 253 are still pending before the Commission.

The PIC shared data shows that 1,685 complaints were received in the year of the 2020. And the commission had resolved all these complaints subsequently.

However, Nadeem, a senior journalist, experience told a different story. The Commission, he said, runs its affairs totally on whatsapp and calls. The shared data is just to conclude the information request. The PIC even does not acknowledge receipt of the complaints.

“As far as my experience with the Punjab Commission is concerned, whenever I, except few cases, contacted the Commission for follow-up of my complaints, the staff said, your complaint is not traceable or not received kindly send it again”, maintained.

He added that his more than 20, 25 complaints field in year of 2019, 2020 and 2021 are still pending with the commission.

Interestingly, the commission, this year too, had received the highest number of complaints against those departments received in the year of 2020. These departments include Inspector General of Police, Higher Education Department, Punjab Health Engineering, Excise Taxation and Narcotics Control, Lahore Development Authority and Punjab Curriculum Textbook Board.

The Commission has 46 sanction posts. The Commission, however, has currently 21 employees and two information Commissioners. The data shows that 50 percent of the posts sanctioned for PIC are vacant.