ISLAMABAD: (PR) Coalition on Right to Information conferred RTI Champions Awards 2018 on Riaz Khan Daudzai and ,Zohaib Hassan in the Journalist, citizen and best performing PIO categories, respectively. Senator Ferhat Ullah Babar was the chief of ceremony.
The award ceremony was coincided with an open discussion on International Right to know day, joined by senior government officials, present and former information commissioners, public information officers, investigative journalists, common citizens and CSOs. All stakeholders reflected upon the significance of this day in accordance to right of access to information held by government departments. A collective demand was raised to spread awareness about RTI and bring RTI in public domain in Pakistan. Any important statement from (KP, PIC, Sindh and federal)
Riaz Khan Daudzai, the winner in the Journalist category, had made an effective use of the existing national and sub-national RTI legislation in the country to do his investigative stories. His stories did not only unearth the corrupt and unlawful practices, but also led to the course correction in some cases. While in others, made national watchdog (NAB) to initiate probe into the facts highlighted therein. Zohaib Hassan, the winner in the Citizen category, hails from Lahore. Being a person with disability, he has made excessive use of RTI laws for solving issues of PWDs and improving the quality of service delivery at the local level.
Mukhtar Ahmed Ali, founding director CPDI and former Punjab Information Commissioner added that although government departments striving hard for dissemination of information but it is need of hour that we should change our behaviours for the purpose.
In addition, two reports on the status of online proactive disclosure of information in provincial departments in Punjab and KP were also launched by CPDI. The studies analysis the compliance of proactive disclosure clause mentioned in KP RTI Act (sec 5) and Punjab T& RTI Act 2013 (sec 4) by the provincial departments. The report shows that as compare to Punjab, KP departments are leading in online proactive disclosure as per set criteria. KP RTI Commission scored highest with 95% of online proactive disclosure in KP. On the other hand, Provincial assembly of Punjab comes at top with 88% of online proactive disclosure in Punjab. Both studies are easily accessible to public on the website of CPDI.
While expressing views about status of access to information in Pakistan, Amer Ejaz, Executive Director CPDI, opined that despite of having effective RTI laws, implementation and operationalization of these laws is still over passed by government departments. The government has not fully accepted our right to know. After more than a year, RTI laws in Sindh and Federal are still not operationalized. He demanded that appellate forums should be established in Sindh and Federal at earliest. The need of enacting effective RTI law in Balochistan was also highlited..
The event was jointly organized by CRTI, KP Information Commission and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. CRTI is a platform of 53 civil society organisations working for the enactment of RTI laws that are in line with international best practices.
