KARACHI:
The Sindh Transparency and Right to Information Act 2016 (RTI) was enacted in March 2017 and subsequently ratified by the Governor of Sindh in April to ensure transparency and accountability of the public officials in matters of public importance.
The implementation of the Act has remained challenging since its commencement. To ensure proper implementation of the law, the provincial government needs to establish a Sindh Information Commission (SIC) and give it budgetary and administrative autonomy as per section 12 of the act. Secondly, under section 7 of the Act, designation of Public Information Officers (PIOs) in the provincial departments within 45 days of the commencement of the Act had to be undertaken. The Sindh government failed to follow both steps. Without the information commissioners, the SIC is still in waiting. It is pertinent to mention here that the SIC is an independent appellate body to operationalise the Act in the province.
On the other hand, the designation of PIOs — the first window in the provision of information to citizens and implementation of the Act — is also still pending. The responsibilities of PIOs are to receive information requests, maintain records, make all possible efforts to retrieve the requisite record, share it with the applicant, and disclose the information proactively under section 6 of the Act. The Act also bounds the provincial department to proactively disclose information about organisational structure, duties, rules, regulations, directory of employees, and the particulars of the PIOs under section 6 of the Act. Unfortunately, not a single department follows the proactive disclosure clause, nor does a single government department’s website features the right to information section. The government of Sindh should appoint information commissioners and designate PIOs on a priority basis to operationalise the Act in letter and spirit.
Syed Raza
Islamabad
Published in The Express Tribune, November 28th, 2021.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
