Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Senator Farhatullah Babar has called for an international conference of commonwealth countries on “National Security Interests Vs Public Interest” to help create a balance between national security interests and public interests.
He was speaking at the joint Senate and Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) seminar on “Transparency Standards in Democracies in Transition” held here on Friday.
He said that the return of National Command Authority (NCA) Bill by Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani to the Defence Committee for reconsideration laid the basis for a healthy and robust discussion on upholding people’s welfare and rights while showing sensitivity to national security concerns.
The PPP Senator said that although cleared by the Senate Defence Committee the NCA (Amendment) Bill 2016 was returned to the Committee for reconsideration.
He said that rule of law, transparency, accountability and public representation are pillars of good governance. Lack of accountability, sacred cow syndrome and inequality before the law erode trust in democratic institutions, he added.
In order to ensure transparency, Farhatullah Babar proposed that the RTI should be based on the principles of maximum disclosure of information, minimum exemptions, and a credible system of appeals against decisions of the executive on withholding information.
Without freedom of speech and freedom of expression, there can be no transparency he said.
The PPP Senator said that although freedom of expression was often curtailed on various pretexts the single biggest impediment was an artificial and unilaterally imposed definition of national security.
He wondered whether self-censorship by the media to address unilaterally imposed concerns without debate whether it was justified or not.
A potential threat to freedom of expression is the recent enactment of laws to control cyber crimes. Laws to curb cyber crime have actually become instruments for stifling freedom of expression. While new technological inventions necessitated new laws it also afforded another excuse to the executive to clamp new curbs on freedoms of expression, he said.
Senator Farhatullah Babar said that the civil society organisations worked for protecting people’s interest and rights and enhanced participation. Enabled by the freedoms of expression and right of peaceful assembly they are actually enhancing public participation on the one hand and transparency on the other.
If democracy is all about more participation, more transparency and more accountability then these civil society organizations must be provided maximum space, he said.
