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Wednesday July 23, 2025

KP govt committed to transparency in governance: Bangash

By Bureau report
September 29, 2021

PESHAWAR: Special Assistant to Chief Minister on Information and Public Relations Kamran Khan Bangash on Tuesday said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government was committed to ensuring transparency in all spheres of governance by facilitating citizens’ access to information.

He was speaking at a function regarding the International Day for Universal Access to Information here.

The International Day for Universal Access to Information (IDUAI) is celebrated every year on September 28 to make the world realise the significance of the inalienable right to information (RTI) of the people.

The theme of day for the current (2021) year is “The Right to Know - Building Back Better with Access to Information that’s chosen in the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dilating upon the provincial government’s efforts to facilitate efficient implementation of the RTI Law in the province, Kamran Bangash reiterated the government’s commitment to ensuring a corruption-free, transparent and accountable governance system.

“We are well aware of the fact that without giving people their right to access information, a responsive governance system and proper service delivery will remain to be a remote idea,” he said.

The advisor said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is leading in the country when it comes to the passage of RTI Law, establishment of a fully-independent Commission for oversight and implementation of the law in the province.

He said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had not only remained the first province to implement the RTI law in 2013, but has also been consistently rated as the “most transparent province in the country” by civil society organisations in their surveys over the last two year.

He added that Prime Minister Imran Khan himself launched the draft RTI Act on August 18, 2013 and inaugurated the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Commission (KPIC) to implement the law ensuring peoples’ right to information (RTI).

“The government believes in maximum disclosure of public information and government departments have disclosed 89 percent of their data proactively through their websites and other mediums,” he said and added that the Information Department, which is an interface of the KPIC, had made 100 percent proactive disclosure of information according to these surveys.

He said so far 21,328 citizens have sought information from different public bodies and 88 percent of them have got responses on their requests, while only 12 percent of the cases are in process with the Commission.

In relation to the World RTI Day, Kamran Bangah said that the past two years remained to be the major upheaval as Covid 19 has affected every sphere of life and every sector of governance and service delivery. The public’s need for information has never been stronger than these past two year as nations across the world struggle to overcome the pandemic and rebuild communities and institutions.

“Even during these two years 4,585 citizens have sought information from various public bodies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and around 60 percent of these requesters were provided the data they sought while 80 percent of the complaints filed with the KPIC have also been decided,” he said.