KP Assembly to provide information as RTI amended

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Thursday passed the Right to Information (RTI-second amendment) Bill 2015, withdrawing the earlier change of exempting provincial assembly from the bill.
Member Provincial Assembly from the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Shaukat Yousufzai, presented a resolution.
He sought withdrawal of the first amendment through which the provincial assembly secretariat was exempted from providing information under the Right to Information Act.
The two new amended sections of the bill read it shall come into force at once and shall be deemed to have taken effect from the date of commencement of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Act No XXIV of 2015.
The Section 3 shall be deleted from the Act No XXIV of 2015.
The mover said the amendment was aimed at adding again the secretariat of the provincial assembly along with members of the House and the assembly itself to the public body.
Nighat Orakzai of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) opposed the amendment. She said the assembly was an august House and its privacy should be kept intact.
However, other members, including Sardar Hussain Babak of the Awami National Party (ANP), Munawwar Khan of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) and Sardar Aurangzeb Nalotha of Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) supported the amendment.
They said the assembly members were public representatives and were answerable to the public.
The legislators said the earlier amendment of exempting the assembly from the bill was based on ill-well.
They said though the treasury bench was forced to withdraw the first amendment after criticism in the media.