Is Pakistan's Right to Information Law Just for Show? National Coordinator  FAFEN - video Dailymotion

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Is Pakistan's Right to Information Law Just for Show? National Coordinator  FAFEN

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00:00At the beginning of the program, I told you that there seems to be a civilian dictatorship here.

00:04Why did I say that?

00:05The basic principle of democracy is that we elect people,

00:08they run governments, run systems, and give answers to us.

00:13We get a new law every day,

00:16that you don't think, you don't say,

00:18you take whose name, you don't take whose name,

00:20we have restrictions to this extent.

00:22And where the taxpayer's money goes, where our money is, where these answers are,

00:27there is a total chill program.

00:29Fafn, the Free and Fair Election Network, has done a very good report on this.

00:33You heard that a Right to Information Act was created in 2017.

00:38And there were a lot of speeches on it.

00:40Oh, look, now any citizen will write,

00:43will be given an answer within 10 days,

00:45the ministry will not give, then this action will be done, that action will be done.

00:48Come on, our hopes have also been awakened.

00:50Then, as is the case in the government,

00:52a system is immediately formed.

00:55Then, the information commissioners will be appointed.

00:59Three in every province,

01:01under them is the entire court,

01:02and in the MP-1 scheme, there are hundreds of thousands of salaries.

01:06If you look at the commissioners in the centre,

01:09if you look at the commissioners in every province,

01:10it is a complete mess.

01:12This is the expense of crores of rupees a month, which you and I are paying.

01:16And what is the work?

01:17Insolvency.

01:17Absolutely nothing.

01:19Fafn has just reported,

01:21and that is why I am sharing with you,

01:22a very interesting data has emerged.

01:25They said, we did the average.

01:26Now look at the state of the federal ministries.

01:28They said that we scrutinized 40 divisions of 33 federal ministries.

01:36And you know, it seems that on an average,

01:38they have posted 40% basic information.

01:42And the information is completely incomplete,

01:45completely incomplete and benign information.

01:48They have done a lot of favour,

01:49they have told how many officers are there,

01:51what is it, under which law it was made.

01:53There is no serious information there either.

01:56And this is 40% average.

01:58There are important ministries,

01:59Information and Broadcasting,

02:02Human Resource Development,

02:03they have given 19% of their information.

02:06Defence, Power, Law and Justice, Railways,

02:09they have given 27% of their information.

02:11And this is also exactly what,

02:13what should I say,

02:14what I use,

02:15which is completely useless information.

02:17They did those things.

02:18Then they wrote a letter.

02:20And when they wrote to all the ministries,

02:21only 19 of them thought it was appropriate to answer.

02:2414 did not even answer.

02:27And among those who did not answer,

02:28Interior Ministry,

02:29they said, who are you, black and yellow people,

02:31who are asking for answers from us?

02:33Human Rights, IT,

02:34which is the biggest problem in the country at the moment,

02:36they did not even answer.

02:37Law and Justice, Railways,

02:40and I read the list,

02:41these are all people,

02:42absolutely no responsibility,

02:45no answer,

02:46we are giving crores to the commissions.

02:48Don was great,

02:49on whom the editorial also came.

02:51He said, you have made 5 Right to Information commissions.

02:55In one centre,

02:55in 4 provinces,

02:56each has 3 commissions.

02:58Then there is a whole department behind it.

03:00There is a legal department below,

03:01facilitation centre,

03:02IT section,

03:03communication section,

03:05admin section,

03:06budget and accounts,

03:07that is, a whole ministry has been formed.

03:10What is the performance?

03:11Zilch.

03:13And they have got this answer again,

03:15because Fafanet was an NGO.

03:18A common man writes,

03:19he does not care,

03:20it is not appropriate to answer him.

03:22They did not even answer him.

03:23The key ministries did not even answer him.

03:26But this is the state of affairs.

03:29What drama is going on?

03:31What is not going on?

03:31Let's talk about this later.

03:33I have been joined by Mr. Rashid Chaudhary.

03:35He is the national coordinator of Fafanet.

03:37Assalam-o-Alaikum, Mr. Rashid.

03:39Waalaikum-as-salam, Mr. Malik.

03:41Sir, tell me,

03:42the information you have taken,

03:45first tell me,

03:4840% is a big average of yours,

03:51if you add up all of them.

03:52The main departments have 19-20%.

03:56What quality of information

03:57have they given on their website?

03:59Or have they given it to you as well?

04:04The quality of information on that,

04:06this information is the information

04:08that the law requires,

04:10that they will voluntarily put it on their website,

04:15and it is necessary to put it.

04:17And there is a lot of basic information on this,

04:19what is the overview of the public body,

04:22what kind of organization it is,

04:25what is the diagram,

04:26what is the personnel,

04:28what are the reports,

04:29and the basic annual things like this,

04:32those are the declarations.

04:34So the problem is that those declarations

04:37are also not available on websites.

04:39And on that,

04:41at least the federal ministries,

04:44we have taken the websites of the divisions,

04:47we have not yet gone to the provinces,

04:49but section 5 of the federal law of 2017,

04:54its compliance is such that

04:56where there are proactive disclosures,

04:58our public bodies, institutions,

05:02divisions are not compliant.

05:05And this one that you talked about,

05:07that if someone has some information available,

05:10how much information is available,

05:12how much time is there,

05:13we have tried to test that as well.

05:16In that as well,

05:18the information that is there,

05:20many ministries have not asked for it at all,

05:23to give some kind of answer,

05:24some have given the answer,

05:26some have given the answer within the same 10 days,

05:28some have given it after that.

05:30But the way the public bodies

05:33try to get information,

05:35after that, there is a mechanism,

05:37the information commission.

05:38So what is there in the Act?

05:39If they don't give an answer,

05:41then what will happen?

05:43Then people go to the information commission

05:46for an appeal,

05:48they complain that

05:50we asked for this information,

05:52we did not get it,

05:53and then the information commission

05:55gets this information,

05:57writes to the institutions,

05:59that this information has been given.

06:01Do you have the data

06:03of how many people these commissions have worked for?

06:06Because no one is going to ask these commissions.

06:09Who is looking at the activities of these commissions?

06:13The information commissions,

06:14which are there for three years,

06:16in the federation,

06:17they have annual reports,

06:19there are different trainees,

06:21and their activities…

06:23No, no, the reports have come,

06:25they have a performance matrix,

06:27that you have…

06:29How are we judging?

06:30People have been sitting for seven years,

06:32it is taking turns,

06:33three years later, three years later.

06:35So there is a matrix,

06:37there are indicators,

06:38there is an oversight on them,

06:40that they are sitting quietly,

06:42they are sitting in the woodwork,

06:44taking salaries, MP1 is being paid.

06:46There is an oversight of the parliament on them.

06:50Parliament scrutinizes their annual reports,

06:54checks them,

06:56and how effective they have been,

06:58what is the efficacy,

06:59how many petitions are being decided here,

07:02and how many are going to the president in representation,

07:06and how much information is being available to people.

07:14When you contacted the ministries,

07:16for example, the Interior Ministry,

07:18Human Rights,

07:19I think at least the Human Rights people will answer,

07:22because it is a rights-based ministry,

07:24and it is a Right to Know Information Act,

07:27Human Rights did not even answer you.

07:30Yes,

07:31the ministry that should be the most transparent,

07:38should give more information,

07:40for example,

07:41there is poverty alleviation,

07:42there is a division of safety nets,

07:44they should tell people most proactively,

07:47what they are doing,

07:48and maybe they are doing a lot,

07:50but because they only have 8% compliance on the website,

07:548%?

07:558%

07:56information is not available,

07:58ok, they have 8%

08:00they have 8%

08:04and when this type of information is not available,

08:07then people make stories,

08:08then there is misinformation and disinformation,

08:10and we think that,

08:12the way to tackle this misinformation and disinformation,

08:15the way to make a law or bring in some other regulations,

08:19it can be misused,

08:21the better way to tackle misinformation and disinformation is,

08:25is that the state should become more transparent and the ministries, divisions and public bodies

08:31should proactively start giving that information to the people, so that at least this...

08:36How do they start giving it?

08:37Then all the activities will not come in front of us.

08:39Anyway, we have run out of time, Rashid Chaudhary sir, thank you very much.

Is Pakistan's Right to Information Law Just for Show? National Coordinator FAFEN

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