Commission summons official over RTI refusal

Date

9/2/2015 3:40:23 AM

(MENAFN- The Peninsula)

ISLAMABAD: After a year of restraint over the blatant violation of the Right to Information (RTI) law by the highest constitutional office of the province the Punjab Information Commission has finally summoned a top official of the Governor House in Punjab province to explain failure in providing information about the financial affairs of the office.

The summon dated 20th of August is addressed to Tariq Shahzad deputy secretary and public information officer of the Governor House Lahore.

“You are directed to appear before the Commission along with relevant record at12.15pm on 31/08/2015. You may also submit your written explanation on or before the date of hearing” says the letter signed by the information commissioner Mukhtar Ahmad Ali.

A citizen had filed information request with the Governor House in September 2014 under the Punjab Transparency and Right to Information Act 2013 seeking details of the expenses of constitutional office and gifts awarded by the governor.

“Refer to an earlier show-cause notice dated 03/03/2015 and the orders of the commission dated 12/02/2015 and 15/04/2015 regarding a complaint about non-provision of information.

"As per our record the orders were not implemented. You also ignored our letter No. AD(A and C)PIC2-55/15/143 dated 01/07/2015 whereby we directed you to submit compliance report as soon as possible but not later than 08/07/2015” says the letter.

The commission missive states: “Why you have not implemented the above referred orders of the commission within the given time?” “The law requires radical changes in the management of information” he said.

Interestingly similar information was provided by the chief minister’s office but the Governor House is refusing to share the details of its expenses and gifts given by the Governor during last one year.

The commission unanimously passed the order on April 15 2015 directing the officer to immediately release the information under the RTI law but the officials of the Governor House Secretariat have yet to provide the information.

The original information request was filed in September 2014 but for the first six months the officials denied the information.

Under the Punjab RTI law information has to be provided within 14 days.

After failing to get the requisite information the person filed a complaint with the Punjab Information Commission which issued orders on February 12 2015 whereby the designated Public Information Officer Tariq Shahzad (deputy secretary coordination Governor House Lahore) was directed to provide the requested information.

However Public Information Officer Farhan Aziz Khawja secretary to governor a DMG officer wrote a letter No SOA/GS(Estt)1-11/2013 to the commission. In his letter Farhan Aziz came up with three reasons for denying access to information.

The commission rejected all the three “objections” raised by the officer.

Internews

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