Fafen’s report: Parliamentary websites exhibit disparities in transparency, accessibility

ISLAMABAD: The Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen) has called for standardisation of information and accessibility features across parliamentary websites to enhance their usability and transparency.

“Such reforms are essential not only to improve public engagement in the parliamentary processes but also as a key countermeasure against the spread of disinformation that undermines parliamentary work and democratic processes”, recommends Fafen’s report on Parliamentary Transparency and Openness in Pakistan.

While parliamentary websites in Pakistan have evolved into vibrant hubs of updated information, often outperforming the websites of many federal ministries and divisions, they still exhibit significant disparities in transparency, accessibility and usability, the report said.

According to the report, some platforms provide extensive legislative information, while others fail to meet even minimum standards. These inconsistencies restrict public access to critical information and exacerbate the risks of misinformation and disinformation in an already polarised political environment, it added.

“Moreover, a robust digital presence of legislatures aligns with Pakistan’s broader digital transition agenda and government’s e-governance goals, as outlined in successive development plans”, it said.

Fafen urged parliamentary leadership across all legislatures to develop and adopt common standards for information availability and presentation on their websites. These standards should emphasise enhanced transparency, user-friendly design and improved citizen engagement, enabling the public to access timely, accurate, and comprehensive legislative information, the report stressed. Fafen’s report assessed availability, usability and accessibility of content and features on the official websites of Senate, National Assembly and provincial assemblies of Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh, employing the framework by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in its Guidelines for Parliamentary Websites.

The recommendations offered in these guidelines were adapted to the Pakistani context. According to the assessment, the Senate website leads by ensuring availability of over two-thirds (69pc) of IPU-recommended information and features on its platform.

Punjab Assembly closely follows with 64pc and National Assembly 61pc adherence to the recommendations. These platforms provide more comprehensive and user-friendly access to legislative information, setting a higher benchmark for transparency and accessibility. However, provincial assemblies of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Balochistan lag significantly behind with 51 percent, 40pc and 38pc scores, respectively. While Sindh Assembly website offers slightly more information on members’ profiles, website of Balochistan Assembly carries non-functional pages. It reports significant technical issues which hinders its usability.

The report underscores over the past two decades, parliamentary websites in Pakistan have undergone significant evolution. Initially limited in scope and rarely updated, they now offer regular updates on plenary sessions, committee activities and individual legislators.

A key shortcoming identified is the limited use of accessibility features across all six websites. While National Assembly and Punjab Assembly platforms incorporate some accessibility options, none meet the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) criteria recommended by IPU, the report said. Additionally, the technical nature and fragmented presentation of information make these websites difficult to navigate for general public. Most content is uploaded in non-interactive PDF formats, hindering integration of datasets.

While individual members’ activities are detailed in verbatim debates, this information is not aggregated or displayed in a user-friendly manner on their profiles, making it challenging to assess overall performance.

Another trend observed in recent years is frequent revamping of parliamentary websites, which in some cases occurs with little regard to preserving historical information.

This disrupts the continuity of information, making it challenging to track past legislative records and trends. The Senate website scored highest in adherence to IPU recommended guidelines for parliamentary websites. Records of verbatim debates are available on all parliamentary websites, except for Sindh Assembly.

Attendance records of members are accessible on all the websites, except for Sindh and Balochistan assemblies. Limited adherence to W3C accessibility standards was noted, with only National Assembly and Punjab Assembly incorporating some features to support individuals with disabilities.

Search functionality issues and non-functional links were identified as major concerns on Sindh and Balochistan assemblies’ websites.

Actions taken on enacted laws and resolutions of the assemblies are generally missing across all the parliamentary websites. Absence of user engagement features, such as advanced search tools, FAQs and interactive options, limit the websites’ ability to attract wider audience, the report concluded.