• December 19, 2023
• Right to Information
• Abid Hussain

ISLAMABAD  –  In the election season it is im­perative that the right to in­formation law is respected by all public bodies to promote transparency and accountabil­ity as elements for free and fair elections. This was stated by President Human Rights Cell of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Senator Farhatullah Babar in a statement yesterday.

However, The Right to Infor­mation Act 2017 is not being respected by powerful quar­ters which is encouraging the entire bureaucracy to flout the law and avoid transparency.

He said that the Ministry of Defence had been refusing to provide information about the post retirement perks and privileges of defence officers for the last over three years on the ground that it was a security matter and could not be made public. He said that Pakistan Information Commission (PIC) declared that the required infor­mation did not come under the ambit of ‘security matter’ and ordered that it be placed on the web site of the Defence Ministry.

However the order of the PIC and repeated reminders there­after has been continuously ig­nored. “This does not throw a bright light on the ministry and raises several questions”.

He said in October last a 3-member bench headed by new CJP Qazi Faez Isa ordered that information about Court’s employees be given to a peti­tioner stating that right to in­formation was a fundamental right under Article 19 of the Constitution. Previously the Court had all along declined to provide this information.

Encouraged by this gesture of the Supreme Court the defence ministry was again requested to provide the information ini­tially sought in 2020 but the re­sponse was a deafening silence.

The continued disrespect of the law by the powerful is not only highly disappointing but also a matter of serious con­cern as it has made redundant the very law passed by the Par­liament to ensure transparency and accountability, he said.

Source: Dawn