This indicates that elected members of assembly no longer feel the need to be accountable to those who elected them
KARACHI: In a highly unwise move, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Assembly amended its Right to Information (RTI) Act of 2013 by passing two decadent and regressive bills. One exempts the K-P Assembly from the ambit of the RTI Act and the other gives the government the right to appeal against decisions of the RTI commission in the court of a district and sessions judge. So, with one stroke of pen, the K-P Assembly has destroyed the spirit of the RTI Act and has taken away a fundamental right of citizens that was guaranteed by Article 19A of the Constitution. No citizen will now be able to seek information on the performance, expenses or even attendance of those who sit in the assembly and are paid out of taxpayers’ money.
The new amendment to the RTI Act essentially makes the information commission a redundant set-up, whose functions become no different from that of a post office. The government can now refuse to give any information that it does not wish to part with. If the affected citizen takes the matter to the information commission and receives a favourable decision, the government can simply appeal to the court of a district and sessions judge and make sure that the matter is embroiled in a legal quagmire for many years.
What made the K-P Assembly take such a regressive measure? Regretfully, this action indicates that the elected members of the assembly no longer feel the need to be accountable to those who elected them. More importantly, the retrogressive step will also give the impression that the projects funded, planned and executed by foreign donors under fancy titles might be an eye-wash and a publicity gimmick. Can the PTI chief be asked to intervene and ask his party’s legislators to undo this amendment?
Naeem Sadiq
Published in The Express Tribune, June 27th, 2015.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
