Appointment of FOI Officers

Effective PGR require access to information for the citizens to know their entitlements and be able to pinpoint the nature and extent of their grievances requiring redress. Under FOI Rules 2004 and pursuant to the Freedom of Information (FOI) Ordinance 2002, the Federal Government designated officers in June 2004 in various Ministries/Divisions under its control, besides the National Reconstruction Bureau, to provided citizens on request photocopies of their record/officially held information.

Upon telephonic check in July-Aug 2005 by The Network research team with nine randomly chosen designated federal officers from this list, only three Divisions (Information Technology & Telecommunications, Interior, and Labor, Manpower & Oversees Pakistani) responded positively and on first instance. These officers  knew their mandate under FOI Rules. However, remaining six Ministries/Divisions called upon (Population Welfare, (Population Welfare, Religious Affairs (Zakat & Ushr), Education, Women Development & Social Welfare Division, National Reconstruction Bureau, and Communications) gave totally blank responses. They all were unaware FOI Rules or any designated offices under those Rules. The officers they further referred to on request, when called, were equally uniformed about FOI Rules or any designated officers there under.

Thus despite FOI laws, and notification of designated officers to facilitate citizens access to information, people continue to suffer a highly indifferent and restrictive FOI regime in the country. The scope of existing FOI law is confined to federally held information and excludes the provinces. The law suffers from basic defects whereby, for instance, it did not override existing laws that could be used to deny information to citizens, e.g under the Official Secrets Act any document could be labeled ‘classified’ to hide information from the public.

Federal bodies had been initially denying public information to citizens, to which they were entitled, on the pretext of non-framing of Rules. However, the Federal Ombudsman had courageously ruled that public information could not be denied to citizen on such pretext. He also laid down the procedure for investigating complaints regarding denial if information to be completed within 21 days. FOI Rules 2004, however, make it costly, cumbersome and time-consuming  for citizens to access public information. The prescribed application Performa requires an applicant to state the purpose of acquisition of information or record. It smacks of citizens access to information not being treated an entitlement or right. The Rs. 5 per page cost is equally prohibitive for an average citizen.