The News International: Karachi: Wednesday, February 07,
2018.
The RTI Act
was enacted in 2017. Since then four federal government departments were sent
requests for information. All four failed to respond. As the government created
a vacuum by failing to establish an Information Commission, the complaints were
sent to the Federal Ombudsman. The Ombudsman simply turned down all
applications stating that the only forum for RTI complaints is the
‘non-existent’ RTI Information Commission. So the federal government has successfully
nullified its own RTI system.
The Sindh RTI
Act appeared in April 2017, but the Sindh Information Commission is nowhere in
sight. Although Punjab has an Information Commission, the institute has no
standing without information commissioners. The state functionaries, taking
full advantage of this fractured and dysfunctional system, feel no real
compulsion to respond to citizens’ request for information. Both the federal
and provincial governments must take urgent steps to establish Information Commissions,
appoint designated officers and ensure that the officials respond to RTI
requests.
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