No provision in the law exists under which requester has right to lodge complaint with Punjab Information Commission.
ISLAMABAD: The Punjab government enacted the Punjab Transparency and Right to Information (RTI) Act 2013 in December 2013 to ensure transparency, accountability and public participation in governance. No doubt it is a move in the right direction, aiming to improved service delivery matters and governance. Before this, in October 2013, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government enacted a similar legislation.
The Punjab government is in the process of establishing the Punjab Information Commission as required by Section 5 of the Act. In this regard, the government has appointed three commissioners. Moreover, some provincial departments have also designated their Public Information Officers (PIOs) under Section 7 of the Act. These officers are responsible for providing information requested.
The Punjab Information Commission is a complaint/appellate body in which the one who requests is often badly treated by officials taking the complaint. It is amazing that there is no exclusive provision in the said Act which deals with the complainants’ issue.
In other words, no provision in the law exists under which a requester has the right to lodge a complaint with the Punjab Information Commission. Here we may mention Section 23 of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Right to Information Act of 2013, which clearly states: “Anyone who believes that his request has not been dealt in accordance with the provisions of this Act has the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commission to this effect”.
Therefore, the provision regarding the complaint must be incorporated in the Punjab Transparency and Right to Information (RTI) Act of 2013.
Malik Saleem Iqbal
Published in The Express Tribune, April 2nd, 2014.
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