Federal information minister Pervaiz Rashid should turn the draft of Right to Information bill 2014 into an act
KARACHI: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Pervaiz Rashid recently reiterated his resolve towards ensuring freedom of expression in Pakistan during a meeting with the Ambassador of the European Union to Pakistan, Jean-Francois Cautain. However, it seems very unlikely that any safeguards will be guaranteed to the people anytime soon. The minister is keeping the federal Right to Information (RTI) Bill 2014 — rated the best RTI law in the world if adopted, by the Centre for Law and Democracy, Canada — hostage to a special committee under the pretext of waiting for its recommendations on the bill. Similarly, back in October 2015, the federal government allowed ministries to block the release of any information if they felt that this undermined the ‘public interest’. Going further back to July 2015, the minister had promised putting the draft of the federal RTI bill on the agenda of the next federal cabinet meeting, which never happened.
Either the minister should stop giving us false hopes and stop boasting about freedom of expression and information in front of foreign dignitaries, or just do something to turn the draft of the RTI bill 2014 into an act in 2016 to prove his dedication to the cause of freedom of information and expression.
S Humna Mehwish Al Quadri
Published in The Express Tribune, February 1st, 2016.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
