| January 27: Speakers and participants
at a two-day Briefing for Pakistani Academia on the State of Right to Information
(RTI) and its Implementation agreed that RTI needs to be studied as an academic
subject and included in the curricula of Universities and Government Training
Institutes across Pakistan. They also agreed that effective implementation of
RTI was necessary to improve responsiveness, accountability and transparency
within government.
In a session on “Effective Implementation
of RTI: Experiences from across the border”, distinguished speakers from
India provided details on the extent to which RTI was being implemented effectively
and being used by the public to access rights and social services. Ms. Anjali
Bhardwaj, Co-convener, National Campaign for Peoples’ Right to Information,
said that 4-6 million RTI applications were being filed in India every year
due to tremendous demand for public information and government accountability
at the grassroots level.
Speakers from KP and Punjab also apprised the
audience of the progress in implementing RTI provisions within government and
the impact this had on governance within both Provinces. Mr. Mohsin Abbas, Managing
Director, Punjab Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA), said that RTI had
changed the nature of governance and citizen-state relations in both developed
and developing countries. He also explained the importance of the PPRA’s
initiatives in making government procurement open to public scrutiny and eliminating
corruption in the implementation of government contracts. Mr. Shehryar Memon,
Deputy Secretary, KP Reform and Implementation Cell, while speaking of the KP
Government’s initiative in making data on its performance public, was
of the view that effective implementation of RTI was a major reason for improved
governance within the Province.
Mr. Mazhar Hussain Minhas, Chief Information
Commissioner of Punjab felt that the performance of the Punjab Information Commission
in ensuring proper implementation of RTI was being hampered due to lack of financial
support and cooperation from the Punjab Government. In this regard, he spoke
of delays in the release of the Commission’s Budget and appointment of
Commission staff against sanctioned positions in the Budget.
Professor Kalimullah, KP Information Commissioner
apprised the audience of the KP RTI Commission’s initiative to launch
toll-free helplines and an online web portal to aid the public in accessing
information under RTI. He added that the Commission’s campaign to improve
public awareness of RTI, especially in rural areas, was gradually making public
use of the RTI Act more diverse and widespread.
Over 60 academicians from Islamabad, Lahore,
Multan and Peshawar participated in the Briefings, which were organised to generate
informed debate on how to improve implementation of RTI in Pakistan at both
Federal and Provincial levels. Participants also included Faculty from Kinnaird
College for Women , International Islamic University Islamabad, Bahauddin Zakariya
University, Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar, Forman Christian College,
Quaid-e-Azam University, National University of Science and Technology (NUST),
Bahria University, Beaconhouse National University, University of Punjab as
well as the Directing Staff of the National School of Public Policy and the
Management and Professional Development Department, Lahore, and the National
Institute of Management, Islamabad.
The Briefings to Pakistani Academia on the State
of Right to Information and its Implementation was organised by PILDAT under
the More effective Right-To-Information (RTI) at Federal and Provincial level
(Sindh and Punjab) Project, for which it has received financial support from
Development Alternative Inc. (DAI) under the Enhanced Democratic Accountability
and Civic Engagement (EDACE) Project.
For Further Information:
Email:
info@pildat.org
Mobile:
+92 334 672 5475
Twitter: @Pildat
@KnowMyGovPK
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Website: http://www.pildat.org/
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