PESHAWAR: The Right to Information (RTI) bill approved by the legislature of Pakistan’s northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province with the select committee-inserted amendments is seen as a strong instrument to afford the people the right to access to information or record held by a public body.
A high-ranking official and one of the architects of the RTI says the road to approval of the bill proved bumpy as some members of the select committee of the provincial assembly wanted the new law to be toothless.
However, he gave the credit to the information minister and head of the select committee who, he said, did not bow to pressure of the members seeking drastic changes in the draft of the bill.
The official, however, said the RTI has seen four changes inserted into the final draft approved by the provincial legislature. The amendments were made in the sections 24 and 28 of the RTI Act.
Section 24 mainly deals with the formation of the Information Commission, selection of Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioners, their tenure, remuneration, age limit and qualification. Section 28 deals with the offences and also the punishment to those who commit such offences under the new law.
The bill drafted by the bureaucracy and produced in the provincial assembly in its section 24 (3) provided for an independent Information Commission headed by a retired senior government servant appointed by the government. However, the amendment proposed by the select committee, which was approved by the assembly, makes it mandatory for the government to appoint an officer not below Grade 20 on retirement.
Under Section 24 (4), the number of members of the Commission has been reduced from three to two members and one of the members, a retired judge of the High Court who was supposed to be appointed by the chief justice of Peshawar High Court, was excluded.
Another member, a representative of the civil society to be appointed by the Human Rights Commission, has now been replaced under Section 24 (4-b) with “a person from the civil society having experience of not less than 15 years in the field of mass communication, academic or right to information.”
Under Section 24 (5-6) the tenure of the chief commissioner and the commissioners has been shortened by one year. They will hold their office for a term of three years and will not be eligible for re-appointment. They will also not hold office after attaining the age of 65 years. Earlier, they were supposed to hold the office until the age of 66 years.
Another change that drew criticism and which the critics of the RTI said brought down the rating of the law at the international level is the insertion of a new clause to the offences laid down in Section 28 of the bill. The new insertion has put the onus on the information seeker to make sure that the information obtained is used for bona fide purposes while the fine for offences has also been increased from Rs5,000 to Rs50,000.
Under Section 28 (1) (e), it would be a criminal offence if anyone wilfully “used the information obtained for mala fide purposes with ulterior motive with facial, fabulous design (typographical errors not corrected).”
And anyone (Section 28-2) who commits this offence will be liable to a fine not exceeding Rs50,000 or imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years.
The official said that this clause may prove to be a speed-breaker discouraging the information seekers in the first place as they would fear persecution due to the insertion of the somewhat vague offence of “mala fide purposes.”
Internews
