The right to know

December 12 will be remembered as a historic day for the Punjab government for on this day the Punjab Assembly became the second legislative body in the country (after the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Assembly) to pass a Right to Information (RTI) bill. With 25 clauses — and passed amidst considerable criticism from the government that it didn’t go far enough — the Punjab RTI bill aims at providing transparency and freedom of information to ensure that citizens have improved access to public information; to make the government more accountable to citizens and to enforce the fundamental right of access to information in all matters of public importance.



The bill, however, does come with caveats, including concerns about unclear definitions of terms like ‘national interest’ and ‘third party’ used in it. Another concern is that the law does not bind the government to set up an information commission (IC) within a specified time period. Also, while the K-P government will be accepting recommendations for appointing the commission members for greater transparency, the Punjab government will appoint them independently, raising apprehensions about possible favouritism. The positive aspect in the bill is that both individuals as well as organisations will be able to petition public officials for information, a provision that is absent in the K-P law, which only allows individuals this right. Also, officers will be fined at least two days of their salaries in one day for any delays in providing information, making them more accountable.

That the PML-N seemingly only decided to work on this bill after K-P passed its RTI law points towards a healthy competition between the provinces, which has been rewarding for the electorate. It is now time for Sindh and Balochistan to follow suit. Our governments need to realise that the public has the right to hold them accountable, and this can only be possible if the people have unfettered access to government information and records that relate to policy and decision-making.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 14^th, 2013.

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