The Sub-Committee of Senate's Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting, while proposing some amendments to the draft Right to Information (RTI) Act 2013, on Thursday asked the Information Ministry to finalise it by the first week of July so that it could be tabled in the Parliament.
The committee rejected the Defence Ministry's bid to dump the RTI Act, while asking the latter to withdraw its remarks stating, "The subject Act may please be kept pending till NOC of Ministry of Defence." The committee, which met here on Thursday with Senator Farhatullah Babar in the chair, gave final touches to the draft Right to Information (RTI) Act 2013. During the meeting, Senator Babar also took strong exception to the advice of the Defence Ministry that stated, "The subject Act may please be kept pending till NOC of Ministry of Defence."
Strongly criticising the 'thoughtless, provocative and insolent' remarks, Senator Babar said that more than 8 months had passed since the Defence Ministry had been asked to give its views on the proposed law, but it failed and now had the audacity to ask for pending the work of the Parliament. Never before an executive organ has been so contemptuous towards a Committee of the House, he said and demanded that the Defence Ministry should withdraw its remarks.
He said that the freedom of information law has been hanging since General Pervez Musharraf era. A new law was drafted in 2008 by the Information Ministry in consultation with all stakeholders including the media organisations, provincial governments and members of the civil society, he said. However, it could not be tabled in the Parliament for one reason or the other.
In the meantime, the 18th Amendment made the right to information a constitutional right by inserting a new Article, 19-A, in the Constitution, he said. He welcomed the assurance given by the Information Ministry to update the law in the light of recommendations made in the meetings and bring up the revised law before the Senate Committee by the first week of July.
While recalling that Senator Pervez Rasheed as member of the Senate Information Committee had been vociferous in supporting the RTI law, Babar hoped that as federal minister for Information Rasheed will now play his role in the passage of the law. The meeting was attended by Senator Syed Zafar Ali Shah while secretary Information and Broadcasting Agha Nadeem and additional secretary Muhammad Azim were also present in the meeting.
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