According to a recent study jointly carried out by a Canada based centre for law and democracy and Spain based information centre, Pakistan is among the last 20 countries in the Global Right to Information rating, ranking 72 out of a total of 90 surveyed countries with India coming in at third place.
The Freedom of Information Ordinance was promulgated in Oct 2002 allowing citizens access to public records held by any public office of the government within 21 days of the request being received.
The 18th amendment in 2010 to the constitution, the article 19-A ensured the right to information as a fundamental right of the citizens. It is unfortunate that the National Assembly still has to pass the 2002 Ordinance as an Information Act.
Why do the people representatives not pass people’s basic rights of information law when it can pass the contempt of court law in two days?
Why do the people’s representatives not want citizens to know what various government departments are doing for their welfare?
It has now been over a year that a commission was formed to carry out a probe into why Osama bin Laden was living in a compound in Abbotabad for many years without the knowledge of intelligence agencies and why the Americans were able to kill him the way they did. Who was responsible for the security failures? Do the people of Pakistan who are paying taxes for the functioning of the national institutions even have a right to know the truth?
S T HUSSAIN
Lahore
