SIALKOT - USAID and DTCE jointly organised a session on accountability & right to information and the participants were told that Article 19A of the Constitution of Pakistan provides that every citizen shall have the right to information in all the matters of public importance.
Ghulam Mustafa, a capacity development specialist, informed the participants that public bodies shall, within sixty days of the commencement of this Act, designate and notify as many officers as public information officers in all administrative units or offices to provide information to an applicant.
Every citizen can apply to get desired information within the prescribed rules.
Sajjad Qasim, district coordinator of DTCE, said that a citizen can have access to information of public bodies including acts and subordinate legislation such as rules, regulations, notifications, bye-laws and manuals. He further elaborated that any citizen can receive data of any public body’s directory of officers and employees, including a description of their powers and functions and their respective remunerations, perks and privileges and details of budget of Public body can also be accessed under this RTI Act.
MPA Zulfiqar Ghauri said that Accountability & Right to Information Act 2013 is the vision of the chief minister who wanted to root out corruption from the society. DOC Malik Abid Hussain added that the information officers were nominated and the list would be shared with the media so that the people could have access to information of various departments easily. He also thanked DTCE and USAID for organising workshop.
Advocate Irfanullah Warraich and Mujasim Zarkhaiz Khan stressed efforts for implementation of the Act.