ISLAMABAD, Sept 16: The leader of the opposition in the National Assembly has failed to find any space on its official website while contrarily one can find detailed bio-data of the secretary of the Lower House on the website, says a report by the Centre for Civic Education (CCE).

“Is it a reflection of the typical mindset, an innocent mistake or a sheer incompetence? We cannot be judgmental but can only pinpoint to this serious omission,” said the third media monitoring report of the CCE.

The report said despite euphoria of e-governance and enabling Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), citizens’ access to timely and accurate information remained an unrealized reality.

Web Watch of six official and six political party websites during August 15 to September 15 was part of media monitoring exercise of CCE supported by European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR).

According to the National Assembly website, the report said, Minister of State Engineer Ameer Muqam was still listed as member of MMA and at least three parties and an alliance that merged into the ruling Pakistan Muslim League in 2004 still existed on the National Assembly website.

Same was the case of Pakistan Awami Tehrik which lost its representation after resignation of Dr Tahirul Qadri.

The report said a document “The E-Enabling of Majlis-e- Shoora (National Assembly of Pakistan and Senate of Pakistan)” by Ministry of Information Technology promised that under two separate projects for each House, applications would be developed to enable the parliamentarians to access information on the working of the houses, viz debates, questions, bills, session proceedings and other legislative activities at their offices and official work places.

In addition, information in audio and video form on legislative proceedings had to be disseminated to the public through the website of the National Assembly and Senate. It appears that the spirit of the project was lost in the process as none of the envisioned information exists on the website, said the report.

According to the report, the website of the Election Commission of Pakistan failed to provide enabling information about the local government elections. It only offered Code of Conduct and schedule of the election. “Surprisingly the EC website failed to revise its information regarding changes in the third phase of the election from September 29 to October 6, 2005 and announced the changes through a press release on its site. During the same period the Election Commission received the annual audited accounts of political parties but failed to place this public information on its website,” the report said.

The website of the president of Pakistan though well maintained is devoid of interactivity. After browsing at least six government websites one hardly got more than the promotional press releases and bulk of outdated information.

The report said huge taxpayer money was being spent on e- governance but unfortunately, most of the official websites were best at uploading public relation press releases, that too devoid of detailed information.

The CCE said the website of National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) also failed to offer amended Local Government Ordinances and rules. Although the NRB had a separate media specific website, it also failed to provide any information amid a controversy about increase in nomination fees for women, peasant and workers in various provinces.

During the media monitoring, CCE-Pakistan browsed the websites of six major political parties for a month.

Findings of the research revealed that two political parties, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Jamaat-i-Islami Pakistan (JIP) used their websites for campaign for local elections, that too, only in Karachi.

Among political parties, the CCE said, the websites of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F, and Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal were non- functional. However, CCE said, the website of ruling Pakistan Muslim League was pretty well organized and offered online membership option plus many more options for participation.