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Thursday March 28, 2024

Sindh’s RTI law is progressive but it has an Achilles heel

By Umar Cheema
March 15, 2017

ISLAMABAD: The Sindh government has finally passed the Right to Information (RTI) law that is progressive in outlook and promising in enforcement but the devil is in the detail. A controversial clause that will determine the intentions of information seekers is Achilles’ heel that defeats the spirit of transparency.

The legislation was fine-tuned in the beginning to the satisfaction of RTI activists who were then greeted with a shocking surprise through the inclusion of article 15(2) which is apparently intended to arrest the misuse of law but in reality will harass the applicants.

“Whosoever misuse the information obtained under this law with malafide intentions to exploit, the information commission may, after providing sufficient opportunity of defence to that person, impose a penalty on that person, which may extend to Rs100,000,” reads the controversial clause. Malafide intention has not been defined whereas penalty on the likely “offenders” is more than double of what has been prescribed for the departmental officers refusing the requested information.

Other than this controversial clause, the newly approved legislation offers almost everything that should be part of a good RTI law. The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) deserves appreciation for adopting a relatively better legislation that it drafted in consultation with the civil society organisations.

A Karachi-based NGO Shehri was instrumental in this regard. Its majority recommendations were incorporated in the final draft, though it has reservations on the inclusion of controversial clause relating to malafide intention which was made part of the draft at the eleventh hour. One proposal by Shehri vetoed by the Sindh Assembly’s select committee was related to the protection of whistleblowers. It was refused on the basis of assumptions that a legal provision to this effect will “empower junior officer to blackmail his seniors.”

Only Khyber Pakhtunkhwa RTI law has this clause whereas Punjab promised in 2014 to introduce a separate legislation for protecting the officials who would blow whistle against the wrongdoings in department but has not been done so far.

Taking other benchmarks of a good transparency law as any guide, Sindh has performed either at par with Punjab and KP or better than them. In pro-active disclosure, for example, Sindh’s law makes it binding for the public bodies to do the needful: upload on website the particulars of organisations, power and directories of the officers, criteria for discharging duties, rules and regulations, statements of categories of information under their control, decision-making process, details of decisions, maintenance of record in respect of RTI applications received and the decisions taken.

The provincial assembly, secretariats of chief minister and governor as well as courts will have to provide information requested in addition to the NGOs getting funding from either the provincial or local governments. The law requires all departments to appoint designated officers within 45 days after the enforcement of legislation for providing information to public.

Facilitation and cost-effective access to information is yet another measure to determine the quality of law. It has been well taken care of as applicant can seek information on a simple piece of paper and the designated officers will respond within 15 working days extendable for another 10 days when the record is not readily available. In cases where the information is important to protect the life or liberty of any individual, it will have to be provided within two working days.

There is a narrow set of exempted information, yet another fundamental requisite of a good law. Clause of harm test has also been included to discourage the blanket exemptions as the information commission can allow the provision of requested details in case it satisfies with the contention that releasing a particular record will not cause any harm prescribed in the exemption category.

The designated officer who will refuse information will face a penalty of 10 percent of basic pay against the recommendation floated by Shehri of either Rs50,000 or two-day salary for each day of delay. Penalty suggested by the NGO is already being practiced in Punjab and KP.

The information commission has been armed with judicial power equivalent to civil judge for enforcing its directives. Any complaint lodged with the commission will be decided within 45 working days in comparison to 60 days period given in Punjab and KP laws.

A recommendation by Shehri regarding the timeframe for the establishment of the information commission has also been adopted as Sindh government is bound to set it up within 60 days instead of 120 days as mentioned in earlier draft. The commission will also publish handbooks for citizens about their right to know in Urdu, Sindhi and English.