No secrecy: Government and public demand more transparency in the province

Activists and politicians criticise the Sindh Freedom of Information Act.

KARACHI: Government officials and the general public were on the same page when they agreed that the Sindh Freedom of Information Act, 2006 needs immediate amendments in order to provide people their basic right of information.

A consultation organised by three NGOs - Development, Environment, Legal Aid, Technical Support and Advocacy Association (Delta), Initiator Human Development Foundation and United Nations Development Programme - was held at the Marriot Hotel on Thursday where calls were made for a stronger legislation on right to information (RTI) about government institutions.

A legal expert on RTI, Riffat Sardar, pointed out the loopholes in the provinceial information act. “The list of exemptions of public record is long, the procedure to acquire information is lengthy and the waiting period is 21 days.”

She said that only information and decisions which are finalised are available to the public under this law and added that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s (KPK) RTI law was of an international level. “New laws which follow those in KPK should be introduced.”

Parliamentarians speaking at the discussion pledged to work on improving information laws as special assistant on culture to the chief minister Sharmila Farooqi said that she would pass a resolution in the assembly for amendments in the act, adding that access to information is a basic right.

PTI’s Khurram Sherzaman said that everyone has a right to the privilege to ask for information. He shared an example of a time when he went to ask a superintendent engineer in Saddar about the contractor responsible for cleanliness and was told that the information is classified.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement parliamentarian Khalid Ahmed said that all parties were united in letting the public have information regarding civil servants and government institutions.

The Citizens-Police Liaison Committee’s Ahmed Chinoy said that his institution has always provided transparent and accurate figures. However, he also talked of a time when the public’s RTI was compromised. “When president Mamnoon Hussain went on Hajj with a delegation, various letters and emails were written to him to ask about the covering of the delegation’s expenses but there was no reply.”

Delta president Naazlee Sardar said that there was a time when citizens like her couldn’t ask an adviser to the prime minister as to why she had 40 official cars but that has changed now. However, she dubbed the federal law on information, toothless and ineffective. “It is the responsibility of the government to provide information as UN considers it as one of our fundamental rights.”