Skip to main content

Up to 7,076 receive information from govt depts under RTI, seminar told

PESHAWAR: Chief Information Commissioner Right to Information Commission Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Azmat Hanif Orakzai has said that 7,076 people have received information from the government departments under the Right to Information Act in the province.“The number of people seeking information under the RTI law to check the performance and transparency of the government departments is increasing as so far 12,859 applications have been submitted in the government departments for receiving information,” the chief information commissioner said this in his presentation to the legal fraternity over the RTI law at a seminar arranged in the Peshawar High Court Bar on Wednesday.About the performance of the commission, he said the commission had received 5,379 complaints against the public bodies, out of which 5,154 were decided.He added that penalties, including Rs25,000 fines, had been imposed on various officials, who had denied giving information to the applicants under the RTI law. Currently, he said, 225 complaints are pending with the commission against the departments.Hanif Orakzai said that every RTI law is being evaluated in a centre called “Law and Democracy” Center at Canada and as per the report of the centre KP RTI Act is one of the top-3 best laws in the world.He said the government had introduced the law to improve governance in the province. “The sole purpose of the law is to ensure transparency and accountability in public bodies through a mechanism whereby citizens could seek information of public importance from public bodies as enshrined in article 19-A of the Constitution of Pakistan,” he added.Under this law, he said every citizen can file an application for information from the public body. The Public Information Officer (PIO) within the department or institution cannot ask the purpose of the information sought.He said some departments and officials had tried to amend the law and bound the applicant that he would first take an undertaken to take the information for a specific purpose and not be used for other purposes, but due to criticism over this effort in the media, Prime Minister Imran Khan refused such an amendment to the RTI Law.However, he said, at the start of the commission there were cases of denial regarding the provision of the information, but now the mindset of bureaucracy is changing through awareness sessions and the commission’s actions and penalties against the violators.The chief information commissioner, however, said journalists, lawyers and students were on top for receiving information from government departments under the RTI Law.

from The News International - Peshawar http://bit.ly/2DJOHHf
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

3 drug pushers, bootlegger held

Islamabad :Islamabad Industrial Area Police have arrested three drug pushers and a bootlegger besides recovery of narcotics and 120 liter liquor from them, a police spokesman said.According to details, a police team of Industrial Area police station arrested three drug pushers namely Kamran, Irfan and Shamoon Masih and recovered 320 gram heroin and 210 gram hashish from them,.Another police team arrested a bootlegger namely Ansar Javed and recovered 120 liter wine, bottles, stickers and brewing equipment from him. Cases have been registered against these nabbed persons and further investigation is underway from them.SP (Industrial Area) Zubair Ahmad Shaikh has said that Industrial Area zone police is doing its job efficiently and crackdown against criminals would be continued.Despite the sit in, he said Islamabad Police has been performing its duty quite efficiently and has successfully managed to maintain the daily life in the Capital.In this regard, Senior Police officers including S...
Post a Comment
Read more

‘Aziz Bhatti Shaheed My Brother, My Hero’

Real heroes are heroes of every one. They are not controversial. Nations love them more than anything. Major Aziz Bhatti Shaheed is among those real-time heroes of 1965 War, who not only stood firm to face the enemy aggression but also repulsed it with his unprecedented courage. He gave his life while defending the frontiers of motherland but never let the enemy succeed in its nefarious designs. The proud nation awarded him with ‘Nishan-i-Haider’, the biggest gallantry award of the country. Now that more than 54 years have passed, since he embraced Shahadat, he continues to live in the hearts of each and every Pakistani. Aziz Bhatti is remembered with love and affection. Nation observes his Yaum-e-Shahadat on 12th of September in a befitting manner.This year was significant in a sense that his younger brother Sardar Ahmed Bhatti (95 years old now) presented this nation a book named ‘Aziz Bhatti Shaheed My Brother My Hero’. This book is classic and unique in a way that it unearths many ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pragmatic steps taken to implement Axle Load Control regime on NH&MP

Islamabad: Ministry of Communications has taken pragmatic steps to implement the Axle Load Control regime on Motorways & National Highways in the country. Sole objective of this move is to control travelling of overloaded vehicles which lead to fatal accidents besides damaging the national asset of road network of billions of rupees.Prior to implementation of axle load control regime, a technical committee was formed, consisting of officers from Ministry of Communications and National Highway Authority which remained in constant contacts with transport community, Members of the Chambers of Commerce and stakeholders hailing from all the provinces. This technical committee visited their offices and held detailed discussions in series of meetings and took them into confidence to facilitate implementation of Axle Load Control regime. The stakeholders assured of their full cooperation and subsequently, implementation of Axle Load Control was realized which is in progress.It is worth to ...
Post a Comment
Read more