Chief Commissioner Right to Information Commission, in an interview with ‘The News’, the Chief Commissioner Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Right to Information Commission, Azmat Hanif Aurakzai said that pattern of governance around the world is rapidly changing in the sense that citizens engagement in public affairs is being promoted more and more.
Realizing this fact, the incumbent government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) as part of their reform agenda to improve governance, enacted the KPK Right to Information Act in 2013. The sole purpose of the law is to ensure transparency and accountability in public bodies through a mechanism whereby citizens could seek information of public importance from public bodies as enshrined in article 19-A of the Constitution of Pakistan.
The chief commissioner added that public authority was a trust to be exercised for the benefit of citizens in a fair and reasonable manner so as to prevent abuse of authority, adhoc decision making, malfeasance and corruption.
To oversee the enforcement of the law, the KP RTI Commission was established in early 2014 with the primary function to receive and decide complaints of citizens who are denied information by the public bodies. The commission also has the responsibility to create awareness about the law and taking all other measures for effective implementation of the law.
The chief commissioner while replying to a question told that the Commission has its head quarter at Peshawar with two commissioners and supporting staff. Around 600 Public Information Officers (PIOs) have so far been designated by different public bodies of the province (except Malakand Division-PATA) who receive requests of citizens seeking information. The applications for information of public importance can be submitted in writing through post, fax or E-mail to the PIOs who are bound to provide information within 10 to 20 days, he explained. In case, where a citizen is denied information by a public body, he/she can file a complaint before the Commission. The RTI Law would prove to be a vital instrument in this regard.
When asked about the implementation of the law, he stated that so far 8,498 citizens had filed information requests with different public bodies of the province (except Malakand Division). Out of these, 5,375 citizens were provided information within the stipulated time while 3106 requests were converted to complaints by the citizens. Out of these complaints, 2,550 were decided by the Commission, meaning thereby that around 7925 citizens were provided information and the remaining 556 are in the adjudication stage. Overall disposal stage rate is 93.2%.
The Chief Information Commissioner added that in order to make the Law more people friendly, certain amendments are also being proposed in Act through the Assembly. The chief agreed that there was a need of more awareness about the law, especially in rural areas of the province. For this purpose, an elaborate plan has been chalked where awareness seminars would be arranged at district/tehsil level duly involving the local bodies’ councillors. Similarly, there is a strong need to develop an ownership of the Law among the government functionaries and all others who are performing public functions. There still exists an element of fear among the public functionaries about disclosure of public information. This is mainly due to historical pattern of governance in the country where a culture of secrecy was an accepted norm and an adopted practice. He however hoped that with the passage of time as awareness increases about the RTI, a totally new system of governance would be put in place where citizens shall have a significant participation in the management of public affairs.
