LAKKI MARWAT: Speakers at a workshop have called upon the members of local bodies to play their role in sensitising people about right to information and services laws in their respective localities.

The two-day training workshop on ‘Right to information and services laws’ for local government representatives was held here on Monday with the help of USAID and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governance Project of the Sustainable Peace and Development Organisation.

District naib nazim Haji Arab Khan inaugurated the workshop. Prof Kalimullah and Imran Takkar delivered lectures on usefulness of both the laws in ensuring good governance, transparency and accountability.

On the first day, the facilitators shed light on Right to Information Act, 2013. They told said people’s access to information was inevitable for good governance.

“The law is also helpful to promote transparency and ensure effective accountability in public sector institutions,” said the speakers. They added that one of the objectives of the right to information law was to make public servants understand clearly that access to information was the constitutional right of every citizen. They called upon the members of local bodies to sensitise people about right to information and services laws in their respective localities.

OSDs: The caretaker government could not come to the expectations of several officers of education department who were made officers on special duty (OSD) by the previous provincial government of PTI.

The PTI government had made several officers of education department OSDs before the end of its tenure in the province. The services of the then district education officers of Lakki Marwat and Dera Ismail Khan were made OSD few weeks before the end of previous government.

“The heads of several schools have been appointed against the management cadre posts while the officers of management cadre are waiting for posting,” said an official wishing not to be named. He said that the OSDs were hopeful that they would be adjusted by caretaker setup but to no avail. He said that the caretaker government had apparently left the issue to the next government.

Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2018