PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly has defended its exclusion from the ambit of the Right to Information Act 2013.

It, however, denied the speaker of the house was behind such move.

In a statement on Thursday, the assembly’s secretariat said the said amendment to the RTI law was proposed by the information minister after detailed discussion. It said the reason behind introduction of the said amendment was that the assembly was an autonomous body established under the Constitution like the high court.

“The assembly is not accountable to government; rather all government functionaries are accountable to the legislators and inclusion of the assembly in the said Act was an attempt to undermine the sanctity of the institution,” it said.

Claims it is not accountable to govt; speaker not behind move

Keeping in view that aspect, according to the assembly’s secretariat, discussion was held between the speaker and the concerned minister and a consensus was arrived to exempt the assembly like the high Court, which was not included from the day one.

The secretariat added that the assembly had its own rules for administrative matter and financial matters and bringing the assembly under the RTI commissioner was indirectly undermining its sanctity.

About the allegation of the RTI commissioner regarding non-provision of information to the failed test candidate, the assembly’s secretariat claimed that the candidate was pressurising it for his appointment using different tactics so much so that he approached the prime minister’s secretariat for appointment on a special quota.

It said it didn’t hide the required answer sheets and presented them to the commission.

“The commission examined answer sheets in detail, accepting the plea of the assembly secretariat that such document should not be provided to the candidate as it will lead to opening flood gate for the government functionaries,” it said.

According to the assembly’s secretariat, the decision of the commission is available with it, which states, “as for as supply of copy of the paper of selected candidate is concerned, this commission is of the view that it is a third party information as defined under Section 22(1) of the RTI Act 2013 and the same cannot be provided.”

Published in Dawn, June 26th, 2015

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