The Article 19-A of the constitutions gives right to every citizen to have access to information in all matters of public importance especially public expense and public institutions. The act already has been passed in the Punjab and KP Legislative assemblies in 2012 and 2013. Pakistan now joins the rank of 90 countries which have enacted this law and it highlights the reorganization of need for transparency and access to information. The implementation of both laws is still work in progress but both are quite comprehensive and the KP Act is ranked quite highly by the Center for Law and Democracy, an independent group that ranks RTI laws worldwide.
RTI encourages citizen participation in formulation of public policy, improving transparency and creating check and balance mechanism by the citizens on the state. The participation of citizens strengthens the democratic process as it ensures the government keep ups their promises and any kind of extravagant spending can be challenged after acquisition of the official documents. The law would ensure that a common man can access public information about where his taxes are being spent hence empowering him with the powers of accountability.
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I was recently invited to attend a one day event titled "All Punjab RTI Social Media Meet-up" at Beaconhouse National University as part of their RTI project which focuses on developing the social media strategies which could help in better enactment of this law. There was representation from all across the province and it was heartening to see youth taking interest in this initiative because the first step for an effective implementation would be creating awareness about its existence. The use of social media is still restricted to a limited number of people but with 70% of population under the age of 30, it can play an important role in the advocacy of this cause.
The quality of this law is still open to discussion especially when it states a certain exceptions which are quite subjective in nature. But that could be improve over the time as when it is enacted the deficiencies would automatically pop out and can be addressed. First step should be making people aware that they have the right and power to this kind of information. Taking in consideration the different law and order and economic conditions of our society, it is hard to expect that a common man would be interested right away but it would rather be a trickle down effect starting from the educated class. First of all we need to identify and address the key stakeholders like youth (students + non student), professionals, corporate sector, opinion makers and different associations. Targeting these sectors and enlightening them means one can get a much larger effect even through targeting certain number of people.
Lastly this all would have to do much with the proper implementation of this act, if someone applies for some information and the application get stuck in the red tape, it is highly unlikely that the applicant would try again for some piece of information or encourage others. The law clearly states the nature of information which is accessible, the appointment of relevant officers and the establishment of commission but there is proper check and balance on the performance of these. The appeals to any injustice should be taken seriously and the compliance to the demands of the applicant should be priority. The need of the hour is to start the awareness campaigns with taking all stakeholders on board followed by formation of citizen groups which would pressurize government to implement law in its true sense.
(Pictures courtesy: Jaiser Photography)
Impressive Hammad.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
Deletenice :)...
DeleteThanks :)
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