http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-13-16232-Pakistan-stands-pathetically-low-on-list-of-info-sharing-states
Pakistan stands pathetically low on list of info-sharing states
Umar Cheema
Saturday, July 21, 2012
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has been ranked 72nd whereas neighbouring India
grabbed the 3rd position in the latest Right to Information (RTI)
rating conducted in 90 countries about granting access to public
record indicting government's denial to the people's right to know.
The study jointly carried out by Canada-based Centre for Law and
Democracy and Spain-based Access Info Europe has found that other
South Asian countries like Bangladesh and Nepal stand far above in RTI
rating in comparison to Pakistan that already has earned notoriety
through Corruption Index ratings. While Bangladesh has secured 13th
position and Nepal stands at 17th position, Pakistan is among the last
20 countries in the Global RTI rating.
Tall promises made by the federal government and Punjab government to
introduce laws granting liberal access to the citizens and media to
public information have turned out to be hollow. The Senate Standing
Committee on Information and Broadcasting has just woken up and
constituted a sub-committee to reconsider ineffective draft bill of
former MNA Sherry Rehman and only in the consultation with the
Ministry of Information without involving civil society organisations
and media.
Again, the Parliament that passed the highly controversial amendment
in Contempt of Court Law after only 68 minutes debate is unlikely to
proceed with same diligence on Freedom of Information Law. Likewise,
provincial governments of Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) have been
sitting on the draft laws since 2010 without making any concrete
effort to get it passed from the provincial assemblies. Balochistan
and Sindh framed laws in 2006, a pre-requisite for World Bank loans,
but they only copied Freedom of Information Ordinance 2002, again an
effective legislation.
In the RTI rating, two nascent democracies in the Eastern Europe,
Serbia and Slovenia, secured first and second positions respectively
in the RTI rating. Mexico that is otherwise considered very hostile to
journalists due to drug cartels has been ranked at 7th position in the
RTI rating. Ethiopia, another country unsafe for journalists due to
non-state actors, has earned 10th position. Even Yemen boasts of
having liberal access to information as it has been ranked at 20th
position.
As far as Pakistan's position is concerned, a recent countrywide
survey conducted by a Pakistani NGO, Centre for Peace and Development
Initiatives (CPDI), to study the effectiveness of the laws pertaining
to access to information found that out of 54 departments approached,
only two departments provided the required information.
The other 25 departments also responded positively but only after the
applicant had to seek the intervention of the federal or provincial
ombudsman. Owing to the ineffectiveness ofthe relevant laws, the CPDI
demanded of the federal and provincial governments to repeal the
existing information laws and enact new ones with strong and effective
implementation mechanisms so that the constitutional right to
information of the citizens could be ensured.
The CPDI requested the government departments to provide copies of the
contracts of the development schemes and projects carried out in
financial year 2010-11 along with the details about the utilisation of
the development funds. The information requests were submitted to
federal, provincial and district government departments in the 1st
quarter of 2012 under Article 19-A of the Constitution, Freedom of
Information Ordinance 2002 and Section 137 of the Local Government
Ordinance 2001.
These findings coincide with a recent decision of the Senate Standing
Committee on Information and Broadcasting to constitute a
sub-committee for devising a law but only in consultation with the
relevant ministry, a move sparking resentment and reservations about
the possible outcome of an exercise finalised through bureaucratic
input.
The CPDI advocating for RTI has come forward to express its concerns.
A press release issued on Friday called for expanding the scope of the
sub-committee saying that working with bureaucracy alone at Ministry
of Information and Broadcasting is likely to compromise citizens'
right to information as the bureaucracy is afflicted with the malaise
of dilly-dallying whenever information is sought from government
departments under the existing information laws.
Therefore, Senate Committee on Information and Broadcasting should
actively engage journalists and citizens' groups in the process of
finalising law of right to information, said the press release. This
is vitally important as implementation mechanism envisaged in Sherry
Rahman private member bill, the one under consideration of the
Committee, is equally ineffective as the one envisaged in Freedom of
Information Ordinance 2002 which the proposed Sherry Rahman
information law seeks to repeal.
Realising the fact that ensuring citizens' right to information is a
specialised job, countries of the region like Bangladesh, Nepal and
India have entrusted the task of protecting this right to independent
and autonomous information commissions. Contrary to this, both Sherry
Rehman's private bill and Freedom of Information Ordinance 2002
entrust this task to Federal Ombudsman, a body specialised in solving
maladministration related issues, which has proved to be a toothless
appellate body as it sees the right to information from narrow prism
of maladministration issue, said the press release.
The CPDI urges the Senate Standing Committee on Information and
Broadcasting to play its role proactively in enacting an effective
right to information law which is at par with those enacted in the
region through active involvement of journalists and citizens' groups
working in the area of right to information in the country.
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