Umar Cheema, a Pakistani journalist, wrote often about the military. Then one night masked men hauled him from his car and during six hours of torture, sexual humiliation, and threats, they made it clear that the reporting should stop. Cheema not only refused to stop writing, he went public with his ordeal. “I wanted to […]
Bolo Bhi, a non-profit organisation with focus on advocacy, policy and research, has filed Right to Information (RTI) requests to inquire about surveillance and web filtering equipment reportedly acquired by the government. The RTI seeks information regarding specific laws under which surveillance & filtering equipment has been acquired. “We have asked for information such as […]
LAHORE: The Punjab government has not yet established a Punjab Information Commission (PIC) or Press Information Officers (PIO) in any public body, even as these are mandatory under the Punjab Transparency and Right to Information Act 2013 (RTI), The Express Tribune has learnt. The Punjab Assembly passed the RTI Act 2013 in December last year, […]
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), in compliance to commitment given by the Finance Minister to the Senate on January 7, 2014 that details of all parliamentarians would be made public by February 15, 2014, is still searching and collecting their data-even National Tax Numbers (NTNs) have not been issued to all of them till […]
ISLAMABAD: Accusing the media of being irresponsible, the top bureaucracy on Monday proposed in-camera meetings of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to keep it out of its proceedings. The bureaucracy complained a lot about the presence of the media in the proceedings of the Public Accounts Committee as it met here with the Opposition Leader […]
A 30-member entourage accompanied the president of Pakistan during his Haj visit to Saudi Arabia in October 2013. There were conflicting reports in the media about who paid for the travel and stay of this entourage, which included members of personal staff as well as relatives. Were the expenses covered by the president from his […]
By: Hussain Kashif LAHORE: The Punjab government tabled and started debate on the Punjab Transparency and Right to Information Bill 2013 in the provincial assembly on Wednesday to make compulsory for government departments to provide the demanded information within the next 14 working days to the citizens. Under the proposed laws, a special commission would […]
Sahibzada Muhammad Khalid was appointed as the Chief Information Commissioner by the government on Friday as the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Governor signed the Right to Information (RTI) Act 2013, said a notification. The law will make K-P the first province to have implemented the RTI as a law. Sahibzada Muhammad Khalid, a grade 22 official who […]
PESHAWAR: Participants of a consultative meeting of media group on the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2013, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has appreciated the passage of the law and has urged the provincial government for launching media campaign to create awareness among people at grass roots level. The media group is constituted by the Development, Environment, Legal […]
Islamabad: Counsellor for Public Affairs, US Embassy Angela Aggeler on Wednesday said that regular training of journalists is mandatory to improve their capacity and make them capable of providing accurate information to the masses. “Media need to provide accurate news to the general public, as provision of no information is better than false information, as […]
The Right to Information (RTI) bill, originally introduced as an ordinance by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, has finally been passed by the provisional assembly but amendments added to the bill have made it considerably weaker. The RTI bill now imposes a fine of Rs50,000 or a two-year prison sentence for those who ‘use the information […]
ISLAMABAD: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Right to Information (RTI) Ordinance (RTI Act 2013), a robust piece of legislation, will call into question the intention of the Senate’s standing committee that has tabled a toothless federal RTI draft law in the Upper House as a ‘multi-party’ bill. Although a few negative amendments have been introduced in the […]
PESHAWAR: The much trumpeted Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Right to Information (RTI) law, 2013 still has a bumpy way to go before it makes it into the statutory book. After the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf drafted the law, it was promulgated as a governor’s ordinance on August 13, 2013 and then presented in the assembly on September 16. Before […]
ISLAMABAD: Senators across party lines endorsed on Tuesday a report of the Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting on the Right to Information Bill, 2013, whose emphasis appears to be hiding rather than giving easy access to information. The chairman of the standing committee, Kamil Ali Agha of the PML-Q, presented the report before the […]
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