Right to Information: Notice served on Rawalpindi police PIO

LAHORE: The Punjab Information Commission has issued show cause notice to Public Information Officer of Police Rawalpindi, The News has learnt.

According to last notice issued by Punjab Information Commission; under Right to Information Act-2013, if the required information is not provided until 15th July the officer will be fined with Rs50,000 or Rs50,000 will be deducted from his salary as a fine.

It was also mentioned in the letter that “according to law, under Section 10 of RTI you were bound to provide him/citizen the information within 14 days but no positive response was received from your side. Punjab Information Commission has written to PIO that you ignored “Directives of Punjab Information Commission”.

In absence of Public Information Officer (PIO) the head of administrative unit/office concerned is equally responsible to provide information and liable for penalties for violation of law under Section 15&16 of the Punjab Transparency and Right to Information Act-2013.

The Commission decided to forward the list of delinquent officers, including PIOs and heads of administrative units, to Punjab chief secretary for strict disciplinary actions. It is pertinent to mention here that a citizen Kausar Abbas, had filed request under Punjab Transparency and Right to Information Act-2013 to get information about allocation of budget and expenditure of investigation officers of Rawalpindi.