News International: PK: Monday, October 01,
2018.
To conduct research on current situation
of Right to Information (RTI) and to create awareness on RTI law, civil society
organisations working on RTI has launched Pakistan Alliance on Right to
Information (PA-RTI).
Under this alliance, awareness activities,
policy seminars and a national level briefing of Federal Minister for
Information Chaudhry Fawad Hussain on ‘Vision of New Government for
Transparency & Right to Information’ were organsed by Sustainable Social
Development Organization (SSDO) and Centre for Inclusive Governance (CIG) in
collaboration with other partners of Pakistan Alliance on Right to Information.
The alliance members included civil
society organisations, academic institutions and activists of Right to
Information across Pakistan. Pakistan Alliance on Right to Information (PA-RTI)
will organize research on current situation of Right to Information, massive
awareness campaigns through local partners and inclusion of young students from
academic institutions to engage them in the social accountability campaign at
massive level.
As a first step SSDO and CIG included ten
civil society organizations in total to launch a weeklong celebration through
awareness of Right to Information in over 50 districts of Pakistan. The
Alliance members includes Sustainable Social Development Organization (SSDO),
Centre for Inclusive Governance (CIG), Youth Advocacy Network (YAN), IUCPSS,
BRIDGES, Potohar Mental Health Association (PMHA), Foundation for Advocacy and
Civic Education (FACE), Equality for All Development Organization (EFA), Centre
for Policing and Security (CPS). These members have organised awareness and
advocacy activities in over 50 districts of Pakistan to create awareness about
Right to Information on the occasion of International Right to Know Day 2018.
The Right to Information Week was
celebrated for 5 days starting from September 25 to September 29, 2018 and the
activities will be organized across Pakistan. The campaign is launched with the
title Maloomat Hamara Haq across Pakistan. A briefing session of Federal
Minister for Information Chaudhry Fawad Hussain with the title of Vision of New
Government for Transparency & Right to Information was organized in
Islamabad. The federal minister announced that Right to Information is the major
milestone of government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf that will be brought to
ensure peoples’ participation in the governance process.
He said that Right to Information is the
key for accountability and the federal government will notify federal Right to
Information Commission within one week. He further said that the public offices
are run with the tax payer’s money and its fundamental right of citizens to
question the performance of public offices.
Syed Kausar Abbas, Director of
Sustainable Social Development Organisation (SSDO) said that SSDO in
collaboration with other civil society organizations has launched a massive
campaign to educate the people about the process of questioning the government
by using Right to Information laws in Pakistan. He said that the effective
Right to Information laws can improve the service delivery of the public
offices. He also pointed out that most of the public offices does not have the
functional websites and urged the government to strengthen the process of
sharing information through websites of the government offices. Pakistan
Alliance on Right to Information (PA-RTI) also raised a demand to Federal
Government to notify Pakistan Information Commission, Punjab Government to
allocate resources to Punjab Information Commission, Sindh Government to notify
Sindh Information Commission and Balochistan Government to make legislation on
Right to Information and notify Balochistan Information Commission.
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