ISLAMABAD, June 13: A sub-committee of the Senate Information and Broadcasting Committee approved on Thursday the draft of the Right to Information (RTI) Bill, 2013.

A meeting of the sub-committee, presided over by its convener Farhatullah Babar, also proposed some amendments to the RTI, 2002, asking the information ministry to finalise the draft amendment bill by the first week of July for tabling the same in parliament.

Senator Syed Zafar Ali Shah of the PML-N, the information secretary and senior officers of the ministry attended the meeting. Senator Babar said the meeting took strong exception to the ‘advice’ of the defence ministry.

When asked by the sub-committee to submit its comments on the bill, the defence ministry had said: “The subject Act may please be kept pending till NoC of [the] Ministry of Defence.”

Mr Babar said the defence ministry took more than eight months to respond, adding that it had been asked to withdraw its advice.

The sub-committee recommended that the proposed law should not only be for freedom of information but also for access to it.

It said the information ministry should be bound to give cogent reasons in writing for not sharing classified and secret information.

It stressed the need for setting criteria for classification of classified, secret, confidential and restricted information and it should be done by a body, not a section officer.