April 5, 2004

Consumer Rights Commission of Pakistan (CRCP) has lauded the approval of rules for Freedom of Information Ordinance, 2002 by the Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, as ‘a step forward towards transparent government'. It, however, maintained that the rules have not been shared with any stakeholder including CRCP, which has been working on freedom of information in Pakistan for the last several years. It demanded of the government to share the rules with stakeholders for their comments and feedback.

While commenting on approval of the rules, Mr. Abrar Hafeez, Secretary general CRCP, said that approval of the rules by the Prime Minster was a welcome development, as it would lay down the procedures to obtain information held by the Federal public bodies. He stressed that the Ordinance was already in force according to the Section 1 of the Ordinance and, therefore, citizens did not need to wait for notification of the rules for filing information requests, though notification of the rules was necessary in order for the departments to efficiently handle such requests. He said that CRCP already had obtained a good deal of information from various departments of the Federal Government under the Ordinance.

On the rules formulation process, Mr. Abrar Hafeez said that CRCP had some apprehensions, which should be considered before notification of the rules. He said that the draft rules were not shared with stakeholders, even with CRCP. CRCP and Centre for Civic Education (CCE) had prepared model rules of business for the Ordinance and presented the same to the Cabinet Secretary. CRCP has requested the Prime Minister of Pakistan, who is also in-charge minister of the Cabinet Division, to share the rules with CRCP before they are finalized.

Mr. Abrar Hafeez said that rules were very crucial for achieving objectives of any statute. We have certain apprehensions because in the past, rules for certain laws have been framed in such a manner that they created hurdles instead of facilitating the enforcement of relevant law, he said. He emphasized that the freedom of information rules should be simple and facilitative for those requesting information. Detailing out the specific CRCP demands, he asserted that the fee payable for obtaining information should be minimum and should not exceed Rs20. The photocopying charges for record should also be minimum. The form of application should be very simple. He also demanded that the public bodies should be made bound to annually publish a Manual of Records, which should contain list of the record held by the public body, and contact details of the official designated for the purpose of this Ordinance.

Mr. Abrar Hafeez said that proper implementation of the Ordinance could be a great breakthrough in achieving transparency and accountability in the government, but this could be achieved only if adequate and citizen-friendly rules were in place, he said. To this end, he demanded that the government must share the rules with CRCP and other stakeholders for comments and feedback before their notification.