Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Commission (KPIC) Farah Hamid Khan on Tuesday said that extension of the RTI Act to the newly merged districts (NMDs) was an admirable step that would lead to a big social change and political development in the right direction. She said that due to merger of the erstwhile FATA and PATA into KP, the tribal peoples now had the same status as the peoples of KP were enjoying.
She said this while addressing the Public Information Officers (PIOs) and heads of the line departments of district Khyber during a training on Right to Information Law here in a local hotel at Peshawar. Farah stated that RTI Law had helped to protect the public’s constitutional right to access information of public importance.
She said that the tribal areas were governed by a separate law known as Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) made by the British in 1901. This law had proved as the main obstacle in bringing FATA into the mainstream of Pakistan. She said that implementation of the RTI Law in letter and spirit would help establish a strong line of defense against malpractices in the line departments.
She added that Proactive disclosure of information over the internet had made requesters’ lives easier. CIC impressed upon the need for proper maintenance and indexation of public records and Proactive disclosure of information of public importance as required under Section 5 of the KP RTI Act for ease in provision of data to the citizens. She added that the KPIC was mandated to oversee the implementation of the law and urged the PIOs to promptly respond to the information requests of citizens. CIC said that the Commission had planned to launch a comprehensive awareness campaign for the masses of the NMDs so as to raise their capacity to utilize the full advantages of the RTI Act.
