Green signal: RTI bill ready for cabinet approval, says Rashid

Minister believes democracy will be incomplete without this bill

RAWALPINDI: Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid said the cabinet’s standing committee for disposal of legislative cases has approved the draft of the right to information bill on September 30.

The minister said this while addressing a seminar on ‘Existing Right to Information Laws and Need for Legislation at the Federal Level’. He added that the bill will now be presented to the cabinet for a formal approval.

Rashid added that after the cabinet approval, the bill would be tabled in the parliament and it would not take long to become an act, as it was finalised with consensus.

The minister said that without right to information law, democracy would be incomplete. He added that the implementation of the RTI law was the right of the people and the government would fulfil its responsibility.

The information minister added that people’s access to information would help ensure rule of law, merit and justice in the country, besides improving the performance of institutions.

He said if an elected government concealed its affairs from the public then it would be against the spirit of democracy.

Rashid said it was PML-N’s government in Punjab which adopted the RTI law in 2013 in its previous tenure.

The minster added that due to the unavailability of an effective RTI law, news based on hearsay would sometimes be published and then would have to be clarified.

News items about sensitive topics could cause problems and could be misused by elements working against vital national interests and implementation. He added that the RTI would provide a remedy to such problems.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 19^th, 2016.