The 18th Amendment made the Right to Information a fundamental right enshrined in the constitution. Yet, in the absence of a statute on the matter, this has been hard to implement. Although a draft bill on the subject has been on the cards since the time of General Musharraf who passed the Freedom to Information (FTI) Ordinance 2002 which lapsed soon after, no tangible steps had been taken to have the bill passed.
Now the new Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government has again come under pressure from the senate to finalize the draft and present it to the parliament. Whereas this might be considered a welcome step, a closer scrutiny of the draft reveals that it offers very little in terms of transparency and public scrutiny of government functions.
The bill stipulates that every ministry/division, department or attached department of the federal government should appoint a focal person to provide the information sought by a requester. Under the law, these designated officials would be bound to provide the information or a reply within 21 days. In case an official denies the requester access to the information, he or she would be required to give reasons for doing so in writing to the former. The requester can then approach a court against the official’s decision. The bill also stipulates that all official documents become part of public records after 20 years,
Nonetheless, a long list of areas have been declared as out of public domain. These not only include defence national security’ matters but also the records of banking companies, Council of Common Interest, National Economic Council and related committees, and even cabinet meetings. Similarly, all internal working documents of a public body and management of the national economy will remain classified under the proposed legislation until a final decision has been taken and notified by the public body.
Other areas that are supposed to remain out of bound for citizens include matters pertaining to law enforcement and public safety, investigative reports undertaken by agencies for the prevention and detection of crime, information obtained or received in the course of any investigation, information about the existence or non-existence or identity of a confidential source in relation to the enforcement of any law and records regarding the collection and assessment of taxes.
Any information the disclosure of which would endanger the life or physical safety of any person, prejudice the fair trial of a person or the impartial adjudication of a particular case before any court or tribunal, or violate any intellectual property rights will also be kept out of the public domain, as will any information pertaining to scientific or technical research the disclosure of which could reasonably be expected to expose the organisation concerned or project to a disadvantage. Another ‘exemption list’, given in clauses 14-18 of the RTI bill, includes matters relating to international relations, economic affairs and privacy.
This raises significant questions regarding the possibility of any kind of ‘open government’ in the presence of so many restrictions of the right to information. This also means that enough loopholes exist the legislation that could easily be exploited by any government official looking to evade public scrutiny. The right to information is increasingly been seen as fundamental to functioning democracies. Now that Pakistan has finally made the first democratic transition, the question remains whether the state will ever truly be responsible to its people.