‘Sindh must reform right to information law’

There is need to revisit Sindh’s FOI law to make it compatible with Article 19A of the Constitution.

KARACHI:

Though the Right to Information (RTI) bill has been finalised by the Senate committee on information and is likely to be tabled soon, there is need to revisit Sindh’s Freedom of Information (FOI) law to make it compatible with Article 19A of the Constitution.

This was stated by speakers at a seminar, titled ‘Reforming right to information law in Sindh’, organised by the Centre for Civic Education Pakistan, in collaboration with United Nations Development Programme at the Movenpick hotel on Wednesday.

In his keynote address, Sindh Madressatul Islam University vice-chancellor Dr Muhammad Ali Shaikh suggested to reframe the law taking into account eight ‘benchmarks’: maximum disclosure of information, obligation to public, open government mechanism, minimum exceptions and exemptions, facilitating access, no cost for getting information, disclosure of basis on which tax rates set and protection to whistle blowers.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 18^th, 2014.