THE Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly passed a law called Right to Information Act, 2013, for the first time in history. The aim was to enable inhabitants of the province to collect information easily from any government department. Public information officers (PIOs) were designated in every department of the province to facilitate the people.

The problem is that PIOs have not been recruited under the act but the departments have nominated their own nominees for the posts. The PIOs become biased and are reluctant to provide information, especially when there is something wrong done by a public official. This behaviour of the PIOs makes the act a farce.

The government should recruit PIOs on a permanent basis who are impartial. That is the only way to get benefit out of this law.

S. Subair Shah

Mardan

Published in Dawn March 3rd , 2015

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