Informed citizenry: ‘Shehris’ advocate people’s right to information

Workshop highlights importance of questioning authority in the public sphere.

KARACHI:

The government might be made up of public servants but the real ‘owners’ of this country are the citizens of Pakistan, asserted Roland deSouza, an electrical engineer by profession, and a member of Shehri-Citizens for a Better Environment (CBE) initiative.

He was speaking at a workshop on the “Right to Information - Article 19-A”, held at Regent Plaza on Thursday.

A lack of awareness about laws relating to the ‘access to information’ are one of the major reasons why citizens fail to hold the government accountable for its actions, according to Shehri-CBE members who spoke at the workshop.

The participants came from all walks of life, including businessmen, government representatives, ombudsmen, university students and journalists from the city.

Giving a presentation on Article 19-A, introduced in the constitution’s 18th amendment in 2010, de’Souza highlighted the fact that “disclosure of information which affects the citizenry is a common practice worldwide, whereas secrecy is taken to be a narrow exception - to be precisely and clearly defined.”

Although Freedom of Information (FOI) might have become the new buzzword amongst Pakistan’s educated class, the importance of Article 19-A still needs to be advocated to its people.

Defining the term, the general secretary of Shehri, Amber Alibhai, emphasised that the right of information according to law entails that “every citizen shall have the right to have access to information in all matters of public importance, subject to regulation related to matters of national security.”

Briefing the participants on the evolution of RTI, starting from the 1990’s Freedom of Information Ordinance (FIO) introduced by a professor of the Jamaat-e-Islami, Khurshid Ahmed, the legislation has come a long way forward resulting in the culmination of Article 19-A.

The vice chairperson, Samir Dodhy, also talked to the participants on the actual process of filing an inquiry under the law with the authorities to obtain information about issues which impact their lives.

Dodhy said that that the law might have some deficiencies in its present form but the citizens must try to use the law to their advantage. He also mentioned that Sherry Rehman’s Right to Information Bill tried to get rid of some of the deficiencies in 19-A suggesting that the public record should include municipalities while information and accounts of government expenditure shall be made available on websites.

Dodhy mentioned a few cases that Shehri took in recent years, which alluded that the NGO met with bitter-sweet success so far, mainly due to reluctance by the authorities to cooperate with them.

In the last session of the workshop, there was a group activity where the participants were taught to file real-life inquiries depending on the cases each group was assigned.

The exercise helped engage the participants in the seminar enabling them to envisage the ‘power’ of the RTI law.

The occasion concluded with the showing of a mini-documentary from India where in common people were using street performances to communicate the importance of RTI in New Delhi’s lower class areas.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 7^th, 2011.