Access To Information From Govt Agencies Remains A Challenge Despite the Legislation

News Desk

Islamabad: Article 19-A of the Constitution gives every citizen the right to obtain information from any government department or organization whereas the implementation of laws as a whole in Pakistan is a serious challenge, these were the words of Nadeem Tanoli, an Islamabad-based journalist who has recently won the “RTI Champion Award”.

The same is the case with the laws of access to information as the federal and provincial departments and organizations are reluctant to share information despite having enacted the legislation to ensure citizens’ right to access information.

The Coalition on Right to Information (CRTI), which is made up of more than 50 non-governmental organizations, presented the Award to Nadeem Tanoli for his best use of access to information laws to highlight public interest issues  The award was conferred on September 28 in a prestigious ceremony held in connection with the Right to Information Day in Karachi.

Regarding the extent to which the laws of access to information are being implemented, Mr. Tanoli said that the implementation of laws as a whole in Pakistan is a serious challenge and the same is the case with the laws of access to information.

He mentioned that there are many public sector departments or organizations which are unaware of the presence of laws governing access to information. So when we make information requests to the government first we have to inform them about every citizen’s right under the law. But even so, government agencies do not respond to such requests.

It is to mention here that information commissions were also established in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Sindh, and Islamabad for the implementation of these laws. The provincial government of Balochistan was making efforts to establish the information commission, but how much time its establishment will nothing could be predicted.  The main responsibility of these commissions is to ensure the provision of information to citizens. Despite all this, for citizens, obtaining information from government departments requires long patience, constant communication with the commission and understanding of the law, Mr. Tanoli maintained.

If a government department has ever been contacted by an Information Commission, it sends a reply stating that the information requested is exempt from these laws (i.e. access to information laws).

“I think that 90 percent of citizens do not know what to do after that so they lose courage; therefore this formula of government departments is proving to be effective,” he said.

While sharing his own personal experience of using RTI law, Nadeem Tanoli told that “nearly two years ago, he asked the Anti-Corruption Establishment Rawalpindi to provide a list about the cases registered against the officials of the government departments, the recovery made from them and the government officials who were arrested on the charges of corruption. When there was no response from the information department, I filed a complaint with the Punjab Information Commission.”

The complaint was pending in the commission for several months but after constant communication, the Commission finally issued a decision that the Anti-Corruption Department itself should decide whether this information should be made public under the Access to Information Act.

This decision was criticized by the media so the Commission issued another decision stating that the earlier decision (interim order) was not the final decision. The Commission wrote in its decision that it is the right of the citizen to get this information under the Punjab Access to Information Act; but instead of three or four years’ worth of information, one year’s worth of information should be provided to the citizen. To this day, neither the decision was implemented nor had they provided me with that information.

In response to a question regarding the performance of information commissions,  Mr. Tanoli said that information commissions have a history of doing good work in the beginning but after some time they also become traditional government bodies.

Punjab Information Commission conducts all its affairs on phone and WhatsApp. A copy of any notice or order is not sent to the applicant unless the applicant calls their office several times.

Complaints are also pending with the KP Information Commission for several years. The Sindh Information Commission did not consider it appropriate to take any action on any complaint. The Pakistan Information Commission is better than others in this matter; citizens are informed about the action taken on the complaint but their decisions are not implemented.

However, the tradition established by the Pakistan Information Commission of issuing detailed decisions is promising; after reading the judgment, you understand the entire case. But no other commission issues such detailed decisions.