Do we need information commissions?

Over the last two decades, I have frequently used the Right to Information (RTI) law and interacted with the RTI commissions in Pakistan. This article is based on a collective study of over 200 RTI requests and their subsequent appeals made to RTI commissions by citizens seeking legitimate information from public bodies. The aim was to understand the extent to which the Information Commissions uphold the citizens' right to information and their ability to ensure compliance when the public bodies fail to provide the requested information.

The conclusions of the above study regarding the performance of the Information Commissions can be summed up as follows.

The Commissions: a) frequently caused long delays in appeals, often extending beyond two months; b) showed tendencies to favour public bodies, either as a gesture of appeasement or perhaps under political influence; c) were extremely reluctant to penalise public bodies; d) often delayed cases due to their own bureaucratic working processes; e) failed to learn from the best practices and technologies used by Information Commissions in other developing countries; and f) often became just another roadblock of endless paperwork, without delivering meaningful results.

The overarching tendency to be politically correct has restrained a serious discussion on the performance of the Information Commissions. What started as a breath of fresh air has now devolved into a mere ceremonial facade for maintaining the status quo. The Information Commissions continue to operate modern knowledge-based organisations by the 18th century clerical methods. Scores of appeals are returned because an applicant did not make a statement to the effect that there was no litigation against the public body or that a copy of the CNIC was not sent. Such needless and outdated bureaucratic requirements lead to delays, squander time and drain public funds. There are scores of cases which were unilaterally closed by the Information Commissions, even when NO information was provided to the applicant. Perhaps their inability to influence the public bodies to proactively display information has been one of their biggest failures.

Pakistan ought to seriously revisit the entire RTI process. Should the existing Information Commissions be retained or replaced by more effective alternate mechanisms? There is enough data to suggest that they are poorly functioning, toothless and only add delays without consequences for non-compliance. They have thus been reduced to become symbolic (and costly) institutions to protect bureaucratic inertia. However, rather than abolish the Information Commissions, it may be best to first try the following package of reforms.

Begin by digitising the entire process of information provision, from the receipt of a complaint till the provision of information. Make the entire process of all appeals transparent and accessible to the public on each Information Commission's website. There should be no requirement of a retired judge or a retired bureaucrat to be on the panel of Commissioners. These posts must be advertised and filled by tech-savvy executives with experience of working in modern digital organisations.

Establish self-executing deadlines that automatically initiate, without any human interaction, notices, warnings and penalties when public bodies delay or refuse to comply. Likewise set automatic penalties for delay by Information Commissions if they fail to ensure provision of information within 60 days. Require each public body to proactively disclose on its website a defined minimum list of information. The Information Commissions should be made free of all papers, files and clerical staff. The Commissioners must themselves input all data and responses on their laptops, which are simultaneously and publicly accessible to all. The current wasteful practice of Information Commissions printing hundreds of copies of glossy annual reports and distributing them to VIPs (who would never bother to read them) should be stopped. Instead, a built-in programme should assemble the necessary data and compile a one-page summary of performance that is displayed on the website of each information Commission.