We have a right to know, says NGO Shehri

NGO says freedom of information key as flood aid pours in from foreign countries.

KARACHI: What Pakistan needs right now, as it battles the after-effects of floods and as aid from foreign countries pours in, is freedom of information, said a press release by Shehri-CBE on Saturday.

The reason everyone, including aid agencies, foreign governments and even the general public, is unwilling to give money through government channels is because of a dire lack of transparency and poor governance. According to Shehri, an effective tool for transparency is freedom of information legislation.

Freedom of information legislation are rules that guarantee access to data held by the state. They establish a legal process by which requests may be made for government-held information, which should be given to the public free of charge or at minimal cost, barring standard exceptions

Democracy can only be effective if citizens are well-informed, for only then can they participate favourably in a country’s public realm.

Pakistan has promulgated the Freedom of Information Ordinance 2002 at a federal level. The law allows any citizen access to public records held by a public body of the federal government, including ministries, departments, boards, councils, courts and tribunals. The bodies have to respond within 21 days.

Sindh also has a similar Freedom of Information Act, which was passed in 2006. “We might have the laws but they are not effective,” said Shehri member Sameer Dodhy.

The NGO gave two examples in which they tried to invoke the information law but were unable to get a positive response. In August 2009, Shehri asked Karachi Building Control Authority (KBCA) the details of the buildings regularised under the Sindh Regulation and Control (Use of Plots and Construction of Buildings) Ordinance, 2002. According to the NGO, this legislation regularised illegally built buildings in Karachi in exchange for a fee. This was to find out the assessed value for regularisation of various buildings and the actual payment received in the government coffers. However, there was no response from the KBCA. Shehri waited for a reply and then wrote a complaint to the Sindh Provincial Ombudsman Secretariat. Finally, the KBCA sent a number of confusing replies without giving the actual requested information.

Meanwhile, India has similar RTI (Right to Information) laws but in its case, these laws are effective. The reason they have managed to implement these rules is that they have a specific body to deal with these laws and to redress complaints. Moreover, if a government official is found guilty of delaying the process, he can be fined up to Rs25,000. The fine comes from the personal salary of the official.

In the case of Sindh, the ombudsman can scarcely be looked upon as an effective control on RTI laws. “The ombudsman has a hundred other things to handle,” explained Dodhy, adding that if the ombudsman’s reminders also yield no result the complainant can write to the President of Pakistan. “But even at that level, officers are never punished, a case can drag on and on and at a certain level it will finally be dealt with by a civil servant. And the decisions made by civil servants are usually not very citizen-friendly,” said Dodhy.

When the information is benign, government departments sometimes do reply. However when requested information is sensitive or there is corruption involved, bureaucrats can delay and obfuscate for years. This defeats the very purpose of the FOI law, said the press release.

According to the 18th Amendment Bill, after Article 19, the following new article shall be inserted: “19A. Right to information: Every citizen shall have the right to have access to information in all matters of public importance subject to regulation and reasonable restriction imposed by the law.”

However, in Pakistan the reality on the ground remains different and unless there is a total overhaul of the Freedom of Information Laws, this legislation shall exist on paper but will not make a difference to the citizens of Pakistan nor will it increase transparency, concludes Shehri.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 3^rd, 2010.