Government forms commission on the right to information
In a welcome move for transparency and good governance, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government has finally issued a notification on the Federal Information Commission to ensure implementation of the right to information (RTI) law at the federal level.
Not only this, the PTI government is receiving accolades for nominating a visuallychallenged activist as one of the members of the commission, making Pakistan the only country in the world to have a blind person as a commissioner.
The information ministry issued the notification on November 7 to appoint members of the commission, which is an appellate body responsible for ensuring implementation of the RTI law.
The appointment of Zahid Abdullah, a prominent activist working in the field of right to information for last two decades, was a pleasant surprise for civil society, which showered praise on government for merit-based appointment.
Abdullah, who lost his sight in 2001 after an ailment, played key role in the enactment and promotion of RTI laws in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Sindh, and the Centre.
There are information commissions and similar bodies in over 100 countries around the global, but Zahid is the only blind person in the world to be appointed as commissioner.
According to the notification, Fawad Malik will also be a member of the commission.
Both members have been appointed for a period of four years.
The last government had missed the legal six-month deadline to form the commission.
The federal Right of Access to Information Act 2017 was enacted on October 16, 2017.
The PML-N government was legally bound to establish the commission within six months of the enactment of law so that citizens could effectively utilise it.
However, the government could not fulfil its legal obligation until April 16, 2018.
According to the section 18, the prime minster is responsible to establish information commission within six months.
Information commissions are oversight bodies responsible for deciding complaints filed by citizens over non-provision of information by the public bodies and spreading awareness about the right to information.
Not only this, the commission can penalise a public official for not disclosing the information related to public matters.
After his appointment, Abdullah called for greater transparency in the government departments.
“It is a good sign for the country that PTI government seems interested in public accountability through transparency in the functioning of federal government departments by implementing the Right of Access to Information Act 2017,” he said.
He said there is strong need to ensure that public bodies provide information to citizens on demand, and a greater need to ensure that federal government departments proactively disclose information so that citizens can see how their taxes are being put to use.
Abdullah said he want the information to be accessible to people with special needs.
“As a blind person, I am hopeful that members of the information commission will ensure that categories of information declared public information in the law are not only made proactively disclosed by government departments through their websites, but such information is accessible for the blind who use screen reading software to access information on the Web.”
Former Punjab information commissioner Mukhtar Ahmad Ali, RTI activist Aftab Alam and others praised the government for Abdullah’s appointment.
Abdullah is credited with the formation of the Coalition on Right to Information (CRTI), a network of 52 civil society groups.
He has contributed over 60 Op-Ed pages articles in local English dailies, carrying out research studies, writing country briefing papers, and engaging stakeholders at public forums.
He also developed model right to information laws and made comments on drafts prepared by federal and provincial governments for effective RTI legislation.
He also popularised use of RTI laws for investigative reporting, imparting training and sharing ideas with journalists, which resulted in over 50 investigative reports in national dailies.