Despite the fact that PML( has the power in Punjab, the biggest province, and is ruling in the centre its crooked state of mind is reflected in the way & content of the law that it has passed in Punjab on the Right to Information Law. 2. information commission will be handpicked by the chief minister and it will decide what information to release. 3. There is no protection guaranteed for whistle blowers who may expose the wrong doings inside a government department. 4. The mechanism of penalising the bureaucracy for blocking the information and defying the directives of the commission has also been left at the discretion of bureaucracy. 5. The constitution of the Information Commission, its powers and selection criteria of information commission is considered a key to determine the efficacy of an RTI law as it is an appellant body. In the Punjab’s case, the ordinance reads: “the commission shall consist of not more than three Information Commissioners,” meaning thereby that government can form one member commission only instead of appointing a panel of three. Again, whether there is one member or three, all will be appointed by the government as there is no role of other stake-holders, a clear attempt to undermine its independence. RTI activists question such a small panel of the commission for the biggest province in the first place.
Posted on: Tue, 08 Oct 2013 09:35:23 +0000
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