• Commission has become dysfunctional as three of four members have completed tenures
• Information not gathered in over 50pc of cases
• Sole member says information ministry hasn’t started process for hiring new members despite reminders

ISLAMABAD: Since its establishment four years ago, the Pakistan Information Commission (PIC) received the highest number of appeals against the Defence Ministry, out of the total 2,474 filed by citizens, followed by the Ministry of Finance.

The Capital Development Authority (CDA) and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) saw a tie with an equal number of complaints filed against both entities. The Cabinet Division and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) found themselves on the fourth spot and the Law Ministry, the Supreme Court and Islamabad High Court ranked fifth on the list of bodies against whom the most number of complaints were filed.

In over 50 per cent of the cases, information could not be gathered from the public sector bodies or was still in the process of being collected. Meanwhile, the PIC has become dysfunctional as the four-year tenures of three of its four members have been completed.

According to a performance report, since its establishment on Nov 7, 2018, the commission was carrying out its statutory duties, implementing the Right of Access to Information Act 2017 as citizens would find it difficult to get information from federal public bodies -- constitutional bodies, federal ministries, commissions, etc.

Out of the total 2,474 appeals the PIC received in the last four years, 2,153 were received via post and 321 via email through an information management system. Out of these, 1,030 were resolved, the requested information provided to the appellants and case closure certificates shared with both the appellants and the respondents.

As per the report, the Establishment Di­­v­i­sion, Nadra, the NAB, ministries of inf­or­m­a­tion, foreign affairs, energy, interior, hum­an rights, education and climate change, the Election Commission of Pakis­tan, the Higher Education Commission, Iesco, the Fe­­­deral Public Service Commission, the Nat­ional Assembly Secretariat, PM Secretariat, Senate Secretariat, Allama Iqbal Open University, SNGPL, State Bank of Pakistan, OGDCL are among the entities that refused to share information.

The lone remaining commission member, Zahid Abdullah, who is probably the first visually impaired information commissioner at the federal level in the world, while talking to Dawn said the PIC has been dysfunctional since Nov 7, as the four-year tenures of three out of its four members have been completed.

“Unfortunately, the Information Ministry has not started the process of appointment of new members. On Sept 5, Chief Information Commissioner Muhammad Azam wrote a letter to the ministry for the appointment of new members, but we could not get a reply. On Nov 14, a reminder was also sent to the information secretary and a copy sent to the minister,” he explained.

Mr Abdullah said the people of Pakistan were being deprived of their constitutional right of access to information.

“Moreover, there are 800 appeals pending and some of the orders are not being implemented as the commission has become dysfunctional,” he added.

When asked about the PIC’s achievements, the member said the commission had drafted, notified and published the Right of Access to Information Act Rules 2020 in response to the queries of the Law Ministry that were also notified after the approval of the federal cabinet.

“The commission developed service rules to recruit its staff once it has the budget. It developed and notified a schedule of costs for the guidance of applicants and government officers on Aug 23, 2019. Citizens will no longer be required to first deposit a fee for filing an information request under the schedule notified by the commission. Previously, people were required to deposit Rs50 when submitting a request to a federal public body under the Freedom of Information Rules 2004, which caused great hindrance in exercising the right to information,” he maintained.

Published in Dawn, November 16th, 2022