The Right to Information (RTI) activists have warmly welcomed the CM Punjab's action to appoint Saeed Akhtar Ansari and Mehboob Qadir Shah as information commissioners at Punjab Information Commission, as these posts remained vacant for over last one year.
Faisalabad, (Pakistan Point News - 24th May, 2018) : The Right to Information (RTI) activists have warmly welcomed the CM Punjab's action to appoint Saeed Akhtar Ansari and Mehboob Qadir Shah as information commissioners at Punjab Information Commission, as these posts remained vacant for over last one year. They said that the Chief Minister and government of the Punjab must appoint chief information commissioner, approve service rules and release sufficient funds for Punjab Information Commission to ensure enforcement of the "Punjab Transparency and Right to Information Act 2013" in letter and spirit.
These demands were put forth by RTI activists in a meeting called to "Assessing the implementation of right to information" held under the aegis of Alliance for Right to Information (ARTI) and Association of Women for Awareness and Motivation (AWAM) here on Thursday. Speaking on the occasion, Suneel Malik said, "According to the enactment, three information commissioners make up Punjab Information Commission to function completely in order to effectively perform its statutory responsibilities, therefore CM Punjab must appoint a person from civil society on the vacant post of information commissioner on urgent basis to fill the vacuum caused by delay in appointments.
" "In order to ensure that Punjab information commission constantly remain functional, the government should introduce amendment to the enactment so that outgoing information commissioners continue serving at their posts until incoming information commissioners are appointed by the government," he proposed. Nazia Sardar said, "The RTI law and information commission are instrumental to improve transparency, accountability, governance and public participation and oversight, therefore, the government must empower the commission with contempt of court powers through introducing reforms in the enactment, so that the commission could more effectively ensure prompt disposal of complaints and implementation of its orders.
" Shazia George said, "The commission continues to remain under-funded, therefore the government must provide adequate funds and support to the Commission so that it could effectively perform its responsibilities in terms of complaints redress, training of Public Information Officers and public awareness regarding law and commission for implementation of right to information." Naseem Anthony said, "The commission continues to remain under-staffed as most of sanctioned posts are vacant and commission is compelled to hire staff temporarily on daily wage basis, therefore, the Punjab government must approve service rules, lying pending for years, so that Commission could appoint staff to better serve the citizens, and ensure that they have access to information guaranteed in article 19-A of the Constitution of Pakistan."
