HOW elite government organisations gang up to cause moral and financial bank- ruptcy in Pakistan could best be best illustrated by what happened recently. A citizen, under the Right to Information (RTI), requested the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to provide information about the salary and perks of the SBP governor and its sanitation workers; both regular and contractual employees. The SBP refused to provide answers to both elements of the question. It asked the questioner to contact the office of the President of Pakistan for information about the salary of the SBP governor. For the sanitation workers, the information was refused on the ground that they were engaged through a third party. This was as if the SBP has no interest in knowing the taxpayers’ money that is being given to the relevant third party.

Both the SBP governor and the SBP’s third-party sanitation workers are paid from government funds, and, therefore, every citizen has the right to receive the information that was sought.

Regrettably, the Pakistan Information Commission (PIC), another public body, came to the rescue of the SBP, closing the case. This, in the eyes of many, was merely an act of appeasement and favour provided by one public body to another.

On some other planet, the Bank of England has proactively placed the same information on its official website. Will someone stand up to provide the two pieces of information? No harm asking, you know.

Naeem Sadiq
Karachi

Published in Dawn, June 9th, 2024