PA Secretariat clarification reinforces story about RTI law

PESHAWAR: The provincial assembly secretariat has issued a clarification about a story published in The News titled “RTI law to remain toothless as KP Assembly yet to reverse amendments” that said the bill seeking reversal of the amendments couldn’t be taken up due to the absence of the mover of the amendments to the Act.
According to the spokesman of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, the factual position is that lawmaker Shaukat Yousafzai had given notice to the assembly secretariat for introduction of amendments to the RTI Act to include the provincial assembly secretariat in the definition clause as a public body.
He said the bill was placed on the agenda on August 13, but could not be introduced due to the absence of the mover.
The assembly spokesman said: “The bill was supposed to be placed on the agenda dated August 20, but the House suspended the rule declaring the private members’ day for transactions of government business. The bill in question will now be placed on the first working day on September 7.”
The News reporter, however, reaffirmed that the clarification by the assembly spokesman has substantiated the facts in his story. He pointed out that it had already been mentioned in the story that it (reversal of amendments) could not be approved due to the absence of the mover, Shaukat Yousafzai, who is abroad. He added that it could have been moved by any other member of the treasury benches in absence of the mover4 if the government tended to do that.