The News International: Islamabad:
Tuesday, September 27, 2016.
The Coalition
of Right to Information (CRTI) Monday conferred RTI Champion Award on Geo TV
correspondent Azaz Syed in recognition of his use of RTI laws at the federal
and provincial levels for obtaining information.
The CRTI in
partnership with the Center for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI) honors
two individuals each year who exercise their right to know by using the
existing laws for acquiring information.
They have
also set up a help center that facilitates journalists and ordinary citizens in
filing the information requests.
One award
goes to a journalist having filed the maximum number of RTI requests and
another to a non-journalist. Azaz was declared this year’s winner in the
journalist category and Sarmad Ali received this honor in the citizen’s
category.
Azaz is the
first-ever TV journalist recognized for his contribution in terms of practice
and promotion of the RTI law through its aggressive use for digging out stories
based on official documents.
He filed more
than 200 requests to different public bodies of the federal government and four
provinces that became source of his stories about the presidency, foreign
ministry and prison department.
Sarmad, a
lawyer by profession, submitted a num-ber of RTI requests to different educational
institutions.
His RTI
application to Punjab University seeking details about the visiting faculty of
the university’s law college went on to settle the issue of providing copy of
the CNIC from the applicant.
As the
university sought his CNIC copy, he went in appeal to Punjab Information
Commission that gave judgment in his favour. The decision was upheld by the
Lahore High Court when challenged by the university.
Federal
Minister for Information Senator Pervaiz Rashid presided the award ceremony
held at the National Press Club. Senator
Farhatullah Babar, relentless advocate of transparency who coauthored RTI draft
law awaiting the cabinet approval, joined as a distinguished guest.
The CPDI, as
a partner of CRTI, inaugurated CRTI RTI Champions Awards in 2014 to promote the
use of right to information laws in the country. This year’s
award committee was comprised of Sayed Liaquat Banori of the Society for
Human Rights and Prisoners Aid, (SHARP), Nadeem Iqbal of the Network for
Consumer Protection in Pakistan (NCPP), Tauqeer Mustafa of the Punjab Lok Sujag
(PLS), Muhammad Anwar of the Centre for Governance and Public Accountability
(CGPA) and Natalia Tariq of the Open Society Foundation Pakistan (OSFP). It was
unanimously decided to give award to
Azaz Sayed in the journalist category and Sarmad Ali in the citizen
category.
.JPG)
.JPG)
