The Balochistan Point: Islamabad: Tuesday, November 28,
2017.
Centre for
Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI) has urged the Balochistan government
to replace freedom of information Act 2005 with an effective and robust right
to information law. Out of four provinces, Balochistan has the weakest right to
information law. Executive Director, CPDI, Amer Ejaz, said on Monday
“Like
provincial governments of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh, federal
government repealed freedom of information ordinance 2002 and replaced it with
a comparatively progressive Right of Access to Information Act 2017 in recent
times” said Amer Ejaz.
Executive
Director, CPDI said that the Government of Balochistan should now also follow
suit and start legislation of an effective right to information law to bring
transparency and promote public participation in government affairs.
Ejaz said
“The Balochistan Freedom of Information Act 2005 is not effective and does not
provide fullest possible access to the information held by public bodies. The
law has many flaws like restricted access to information retained by government
departments and the process of filing information request is also problematic
and extensive.”
“To advocate
the enactment of a progressive RTI law, CPDI has penned several letters to
Chief Minister, Speaker Assembly and many other legislators of Balochistan,”
Executive Director, CPDI added.
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