Fafen highlights Punjab’s transparency gaps amid moderate progress

ISLAMABAD: Public bodies in the Punjab province proactively disclose almost half (52 percent) of the legally-required information on their official websites, says a report by the Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen).

The assessment, conducted as part of Fafen’s “Countering Disinformation through Information” campaign, underscores the critical role of proactive disclosures in bolstering institutional transparency and countering misinformation.

The absence of official and authentic information breeds speculations, rumours, assumptions and conjectures and becomes a major reason for disinformation, which undermines institutional credibility, dents public confidence and stimulates instability. The assessment covered 253 public bodies, including 43 Punjab secretariat departments, 27 attached departments, 147 autonomous bodies, 23 government companies, and 13 special institutions, which fall under the Punjab Government Rules of Business, 2011.

The Fafen assessed the level of transparency against Section 4 of the Punjab Transparency and Right to Information Act (PTRIA) 2013, which, however, does not mandate digital disclosures.

Despite no explicit legal requirement for publishing proactively disclosed information on the official websites, the Punjab government’s level of transparency fares better than the federal government, which is bound by the provisions of the Right of Access to Information Act, 2017 to proactively disclose information on websites.

An earlier report by Fafen had established that the federal ministries were proactively disclosing an average of 42 percent of information that is required to be placed on the websites as per the provisions of the federal law.

Fafen emphasised that while the PTRIA 2013 does not explicitly mandate digital disclosures, official websites remain the most practical and globally aligned platform for transparency.

Conducted between January 15 and 29, 2025, the assessment found that the Punjab Secretariat Departments led in transparency as they are proactively making 61 percent information available as per the legal requirements.

However, their attached departments disclosing 53 percent of the legally-required information, autonomous bodies 51 percent, special institutions 49 percent, and government companies 37 percent.

Among the 253 public bodies, the Provincial Human Rights and Minorities Affairs Department, Punjab Prisons, and the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore, emerged as top performers with over 80 percent compliance.

However, nearly half of the entities, particularly autonomous bodies and government companies, lagged below 50 percent. While general information about public bodies including their functions and the legal frameworks governing their operations are widely available on websites, the information concerning their employees’ remunerations, perks and privileges, decision-making processes, budget, subsidies, concessions and the Public Information Officers (PIOs) are largely missing.