LAHORE: The Punjab government on Wednesday sent draft of the freedom of information ordinance to the governor for approval and promulgation. The draft law was approved by the provincial cabinet a few days ago with the decision to introduce it through an ordinance. Caretaker chief minister Najam Sethi had decided to enforce it through an […]
The Right to Information (RTI) article 19-A was inserted in the constitution under the 18th amendment for the people of Pakistan to get all information in matters of public importance but subject to regulation and reasonable restrictions imposed by law. The Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa recently passed an ordinance “The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Right to Information […]
LAHORE: Members of the civil society on Friday demanded that the Punjab government implement Right to Information Law in Punjab immediately They made this demand at a rally and press conference at the Lahore Press Club The conference was organised by the Coalition on Right to Information (CRTI) a platform of 20 civil society organisations […]
We have now completed a full year with the YouTube ban in place, forcing some to do without one of the most popular internet sites in the world, many others to resort to proxies of various kinds, putting up with the nuisances these ‘by-pass’ mechanisms cause. So, what has the ban, slapped on after an […]
PESHAWAR: The government delayed the passage of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Right to Information Bill, 2013, in the assembly at the eleventh hour on Monday when Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Israrullah Khan Gandapur agreed to the opposition’s suggestion that the draft should be referred to the House’s select committee for examination and recommendations, instead […]
PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Tuesday tabled ‘Right to Information Bill’ in the provincial assembly while the opposition members walked out from the proceedings in protest against ignoring their demand by the government regarding the District Development Advisory Committee (DDAC). Soon after the recitation from the Holy Quran, newly elected members, including Ahmad Khan […]
ISLAMABAD: “If you will work in cooperation, forgetting the past, burying the hatchet, you are bound to succeed. We should begin to work in that spirit and in time all these angularities of the majority and minority communities […] the Pathans, Punjabis, Shias, Sunnis and […] the Brahmins, Vashnavas, Khatris, also Bengalis, Madrasis, will vanish.” […]
One of the greatest checks on excessive government power is the right of all citizens to get information about what their representatives are up to. The general principle which should be followed, but rarely is, when it comes to freedom of information laws is that all information should be available to the public except for […]
A SPEAKER at a workshop was recently quoted as calling the right to information the mother of all rights. Pakistanis have taken their time to realise this basic principle and now when they are making an effort to access information as a right, there are fears they might end up with less than what they […]
LAHORE: Representatives of civil society organisations on Friday rejected the draft Punjab Freedom of Information Bill 2013, describing it as a “disabler law” having no mention of the status of whistleblowers. Maximised time of redressal mechanism, long list of arbitrary “exemptions”, safeguarding many public domain information with the notion of “national defence or security”, “public […]
The Right to Information (RTI) Ordinance is the first major accomplishment of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led coalition government in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P). The only such law in the country, the RTI paves the way for a more transparent and vibrant democracy where citizens have access to all government documents and can monitor the expenditure of their […]
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Right to Information Ordinance 2013, promulgated by the provincial PTI government, is a complex piece of legislation which will require time to properly analyse and digest. And, as with all such laws, good intentions will not be enough and will have to be followed by effective implementation. These caveats aside, the law […]
IT is a testament to the rapid progress of information technology that lectures and courses by well-known educational institutes, analyses of political and social discourse, and historical accounts of relatively unknown events can be accessed through video-sharing websites such as YouTube. However, in Pakistan, because of certain sacrilegious videos purportedly threatening public order, a whole […]
PESHAWAR: The government has amended its draft on the Right to Information (RTI) Ordinance, after the initial blueprint was criticised for certain inadequacies. K-P Governor Engineer Shaukatullah Khan, who signed the ordinance forwarded by the provincial government on August 13, was quoted by an official source as saying: “I have signed the ordinance because the […]
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