Pakistan Today: Editorial: Pakistan: Thursday, February 16, 2017.
We have
already the Freedom of Information Ordinance 2002 and Article 19A, inserted
during the passage of the 18th amendment of 2010. That the need for a new law
is being felt indicates dissatisfaction with the earlier legislation.
The presumption
is that the earlier law was not transparent, encouraged unnecessary delays in
providing information or lacked an efficient implementation mechanism. Instead
of waiting for information for three weeks, the proposed law provides three
days deadline. A three member Commission appointed by the Prime
Minister would now hear the RTI request besides being
empowered to order public bodies
to disclose information and provide records. There are new ideas in the
proposed law, which have already been implemented by a number of
countries. Records older than 20 years
will automatically pass into the public domain.
In case a person is abducted and killed by the security agencies, the
agencies will no longer be able to use ‘national security’ as an excuse not to
provide information on the matter. Information regarding corruption in public
institutions will now be more readily available. If there is corruption in a
security organisation, that information will have to be made public on request.
The 2002
Ordinance and the insertion of Article 19A could prove unsatisfactory because
of three big impediments, the political governments, civil bureaucracy and
military bureaucracy. The ruling parties desperately want to keep under lock
and key the skeletons rattling in their cupboards. The bureaucracy believes its power springs
from its monopoly over information and is unwilling to share it. The military
bureaucracy is averse to own that it has done anything wrong. It is easy to
pass the bill unanimously in the Senate. The pressure from the trio would
become nerve racking when bill reaches the much larger National Assembly where
different lobbies having stakes become highly active. All will depend on whether the Prime Minister
has the will and the intrepidity to put his weight behind the proposed RTI law.
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