Following the lead of the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies, the provincial legislature of Sindh unanimously passed the Sindh Transparency & Right to Information Bill 2016 on Monday.
The first of its kind in the province, the legislation envisages a proper mechanism with defined timelines for citizens to obtain information on any public authority in the province as well as proposes a system of penal action against officials withholding or obstructing release of information.
A number of concerned sections of society, including journalists, media organisations, civil society activists and NGOs, had been eagerly awaiting the introduction and passage of the right to information bill by the Sindh Assembly.
The legislature adopted the bill in the light of a report of a 14-member select committee of the house. The legislation was referred to the body on November 23 last year for considering it clause by clause as well as proposing amendments.
As the chairman of the committee, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Nisar Khuhro presented the report in the assembly, which mulled over the draft. He termed its passage “a major and historic step” of the Sindh Assembly, saying the house had taken a giant leap for ensuring transparency.
He said the bill’s adoption would alleviate the process of an ordinary citizen getting access to public information as well as ensure good governance and help rid society of corruption.
He added that the select body had conducted a number of meetings and reviewed similar pieces of legislation enforced in other provinces in order to finalise the draft.
Khuhro said the bill was adopted to hold the government and governmental bodies accountable, adding that the legislation had empowered ordinary citizens by giving them access to public information instead of empowering institutions.
Opposition leader Sardar Ahmad said the bill had empowered every citizen of the province to obtain whatever information they required without any obstruction on the part of government offices.
He said the legislation was formulated and passed in the interest of the public, as all the parliamentary groups in the assembly had contributed towards finalising the draft and such a collective effort of the lawmakers was “highly praiseworthy”.
Features of the legislation
After incorporating the amendments proposed by the select committee, the final draft introduces the proposed law “as a bill to provide for promoting transparency in the working of every public authority by setting out a practical regime for every citizen to secure access to information in a rapid and low-cost manner under the control of public authorities”. It also envisages forming a Sindh Information Commission to achieve the aims and objectives of the law.
The bill defines “information” as any datum held by a public body and includes any memo, book, design, contract, representation, pamphlet, brochure, order, notification, document, plan, letter, report, accounts statement, project proposal, photograph, audio, video, drawing, film, electronically prepared instrument, machine-readable document and other documentary material, regardless of its physical form or characteristics.
The legislation defines “public body” as a department, attached department, or autonomous or semi-autonomous body of the government, or a company of the government or a special institution created by the government. The local government, secretariats of the Sindh governor or chief minister, the Sindh Assembly, any court, tribunal, office, board, commission, council or any other body functioning in the province also comes under the definition.
The draft states that every public body should disseminate information as widely as possible and wherever possible, including on the internet, so that all the citizens could have easy access to them. “Every public body, within a period of 45 days from the commencement of this Act, should designate and notify any appropriate number of officers to act and serve as a designated officer(s) not below the grade of BPS-16 with whom the request for information under this Act many be lodged.”
The designated official will be bound to respond to each application as soon as possible, but not take more than 15 working days. In case the required information is not readily available, the designated official will intimate the applicant and take another 10 working days for responding to the application. However, information needed to protect the life or liberty of any individual should be provided within two working days.
The section dealing with complaints reads: “Anyone who believes that his request has not been dealt in accordance with the provisions of this Act has the right to lodge a complaint with the [Information] Commission.” The commission will decide every complaint within 45 days.
A designated official or public body could refuse an application for access to information if they believe the disclosure could cause harm to sovereignty and national integrity, including national defence, security, public, order and international relations.
Further sub-sections provide a number of other conditions, including affecting the private sector’s interests or fundamental rights of a citizen, or revealing the identity of a confidential source.
The bill says the government will, within a period of 100 days from the commencement of the Act, establish an information commission to be known as the Sindh Information Commission. The body will comprise three members appointed by the government and will be headed by the chief information commissioner, who should be a retired senior government servant not below the rank of grade 20.
The two other members to be known as commissioners will include an advocate of the high court or the Supreme Court qualified to be a judge of the high court and a person from the civil society with experience of not less than 15 years.
The section dealing with penalties states: “Where a designated official has, without any reasonable cause, refused to receive an application, has not furnished information within the time limits, or with mala fide intent denied the request or knowingly gave incorrect, incomplete or misleading information, the commission may, after providing sufficient opportunity of defence, direct the said official to pay fine which may extend to 10 per cent of his basic pay.”
Its sub-section reads: “Whoever misuses the information obtained under this law with mala fide intentions to exploit, the Information Commission may punish with a fine of Rs100,000 or imprisonment of three months.”
The legislation also says: “In addition to any other action under any other law, any person who destroys a record which at the time it was destroyed was the subject of an application for access to information, internal review or complaint, or otherwise obstructs access to information, internal review or complaint, or otherwise obstructs access to information which is the subject of an application, internal review or complaint, with the intention of preventing its disclosure under this Act or violates any provision of this Act, shall commit an offence punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years and six months or with fine which shall not be less than Rs10,000 or 10 per cent of his basic pay or with both.”