Home »Business and Economy » Pakistan » KP RTI Act 2013: CGPA demands KP government to notify rules of business

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  • Sep 29th, 2017
  • Comments Off on KP RTI Act 2013: CGPA demands KP government to notify rules of business
Centre for Governance and Public Accountability (CGPA) has demanded of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to notify the rules of business under the KP Right to Information (RTI) Act 2013. The demand was made on the International Right to Know Day. The right of access to information held by public bodies, known as the right to information, is internationally recognized human right and protected under the Article 19-A of the Constitution of Pakistan, 1973.

This constitutional right provides a range of benefits to the citizens of Pakistan which include promoting democratic participation, combating corruption and help foster effective, accountable and responsive government. Although it has been over a decade that first Freedom of Information Ordinance 2002 was enacted at the federal level, it took another eleven years to enact internationally accepted law in the form of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa RTI Act 2013.

The introduction of new legislation could have guaranteed right to information, had the provincial institutions not rallied against the law. The KP provincial assembly once tried to exempt itself from the purview of the law. That decision was taken back, but revealed the fact that how serious were the provincial legislators vis-à-vis transparency. Clear procedure has not been laid down for recovery of fines from the violators of the law.

The law does not provide whether the decision of the information commission could be challenged through writ petition in the Peshawar High Court or in the district courts. The law in its current form does not bind the government to appoint new information commissioner, within specified timeframe, when the incumbent information commissioners complete the tenure.

To make improvements, KP RTI commission proposed a number of amendments to the KP RTI law, but the KP law department has not yet made any sort of progress in this regard. These amendments recommended to make Peshawar High Court as appeal court against the decisions of the KP Information Commission, mandatory appointments of the information commissioners once the incumbents retire or resign, and lastly recommended to empower information commission to ensure proactive disclosure by public bodies, are significant ones. However, these proposed amendments have not been approved.



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