PESHAWAR
Khyber Pakhtukhwa Senior Provincial Minister Shahram Khan Tarakai has said the PTI-led government will break status quo of secrecy in official business through revolutionary laws like the Right to Information Act.
“Now the era of transparency is destined to replace the earlier strangely prevailed trend of secrecy in the government department,” Tarakai said this while addressing, the closing ceremony of a series of training workshops for the Public Information Officers under RTI Act 2013 at KP Judicial Academy (KPJA) here on Wednesday.
Chief Information Commissioner RTI Commission Major (Retd) Sahibzada Muhammad Khalid, Commissioner Prof Kalimullah and Abdul Matin respectively and senior officials of the judicial academy, including senior Director Administration KPJA Muhammad Salim Khan, Dean of Faculty KPJA Khurshid Iqbal, Focal Person Asghar Ali Salarzai and Communication Specialist Atif Yousafzai from Post Crisis Need Assessment (PCNA) were present on the occasion.
“The nation is not going to forgive officers, if they failed to deliver justice and we have empowered citizens through RTI like laws,” Tarakai said
A total of eight batches, each comprising 30 PIOs of various government departments, were trained by KPJA in collaboration with KP-PCNA-Governance Support Project (GSP) funded by World Bank through Multi Donors Trust Fund for two days each on RTI law in the province to legally prepare officials to deliver the system effectively.
In his address on the occasion Chief Information Commissioner Right to Information Commission Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Major (Retd) Sahibzada Muhammad Khalid urged the PIOs, “You must remember that we are public servants to assist and never create hurdles.”
He said that there is a timeline fixed in RTI law to address cases and request submitted by citizens for information with PIOs and no delay in it will be tolerated and will be dealt with according to the law.
Atif Yousafzai, PCNA Communication Specialist, said that under the Governance Support Project (GSP) funded by World Bank the PIOs training under RTI Act 2013 at the judicial academy were conducted to set in an exemplary era of transparency and good governance in the province by training PIOs in legal environment to deliver the system to the best of abilities.
He asked the PIOs that after getting proper training in legal environment in the judicial academy they should fulfil their responsibilities to facilitate people who seek information under RTI law in the province.