ABBOTTABAD: Speakers at a seminar said on Wednesday that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government should table the recently promulgated Right to Information Ordinance in the provincial assembly to convert it into an Act before it lapses.
The Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI), an Islamabad-based civil society organisation, had organised the two-day workshop titled “Using Right to Information for Investigative Reporting and Attainment of Fundamental Rights.”
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Secretary Information Azmat Hanif Orakzai, who was one of the resource persons, couldn’t attend the workshop due to pressing engagements.Zahid Abdullah, a representative of CPDI, talked about the salient features of the Right to Information Ordinance 2013 and said that government departments would disclose information about the issues of public importance.
He said members of the civil society and journalists would use the information to eradicate corruption. “Article 19-A has been incorporated in the preamble of the ordinance, which says that every citizen shall have the right to have access to information in all matters of public importance,” Zahid Abdullah added.
The participants of the workshop, mostly journalists, said the new law would empower the people to exercise their right to get information that would help bring qualitative change in the lives of the people.
The speakers said that sections 10 and 11 explained the procedure on how to handle the information and the designated officer would provide the information within 10 days after receiving the request. They said that information needed to protect the life and liberty of any individual would be provided within two days.
A complaint filed against any department would be dealt with by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Commission if its officials failed to provide the required information, they said.
