Newsletter 105

A newsletter containing news

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A newsletter containing news, views, articles, investigative stories in the field of

Right to Information

From

Around the World

Issue No: 105

E - Alert

Issue Date: 06-08-2015

 

 

 

Editorial:

Greetings from Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives, (CPDI).

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly is in session and RTI community in Pakistan is waiting with baited breath as to when will it revoke amendments introduced on June 23  in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Right to Information Act 2013. Civil society groups, concerned citizens and media took PTI government to task for diluting the law which suggests there is greater ownership of RTI in Pakistan. The level of informed debate also shows that RTI movement in the country is maturing. Our background information suggests that these amendments will be withdrawn in this session.

Couple of lessons can be drawn from this saga of amendments. Wherever you are, beware   of bureaucratic shenanigans for it was the law department that wanted to lower the status of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Commission. Never underestimate the power of empire to strike back. Neither it is an isolated case for we have seen it happening in India where bureaucracy would have succeeded in declaring file notings exempted from disclosure had Indian civil society not taken sustained stand against bureaucratic ‘indecent’ proposal. Secondly, it was Speaker Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly who played an instrumental role in giving exemption to the Assembly. So rare unity at display by bureaucrats and politicians on the lines of one at times displayed by Jim Hacker and Sir Humphrey Appleby to protect mutual interests, in this case the mutual interest being the preference for secretive ways of running government over transparency. Yes, price of freedom is eternal vigilance and as it is ‘mother of all rights’ and touch stone of all our freedoms, right to information will always remain n obvious target and corresponding greater level of vigilance will be required and forever.

Happy reading,

CPDI

 

Pakistan

Pakistan may have top global ranking if RTI draft law passed

The News

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is an ‘if’ away from grabbing the top global ranking as it can proudly claim to have the best Right to Information (RTI) legislation in the world to promote transparency if the draft RTI Act 2014 is passed into ...

 

Pakistan

Development funds: district courts not providing info to CGPA

Business Recorder (press release) (blog)

Anwar said District courts are covered in purview of the KP Right to Information (RTI) Act. Section 2, Sub section (i) of KP RTI Act 2013 include ...

 

India

Indian Potash Limited comes under RTI Act's ambit: CIC

Economic Times

NEW DELHI: Indian Potash Limited (IPL), the Rs 15,000-crore fertliser behemoth, is answerable to people under the Right to Information Act, the full ...

 

India

RTI Act: A decade of stonewalling information

Hindustan Times

When the Right to Information Act (RTI) was passed in 2005, the view across the political spectrum was that the law will provide access to services and ...

 

USA

Details released in Navy bribery scheme, censure of 3 admirals

The Seattle Times

... not known until the Navy Times published a story over the weekend based on redacted documents received through the Freedom of Information Act.

 

UK

Freedom of Information Act could be 'watered down' as review is launched

Telegraph.co.uk

Maurice Frankel, director of the Campaign for Freedom of Information said the current system, in which a tribunal oversees the balance between the ...

 

UK

Syria air strikes conducted by UK military pilots

BBC News

And yet news of Britons bombing Syria emerged not in the Commons but via a freedom of information request. Few pilots were involved. They were ...

 

Sri Lanka

Let sleeping watch dogs lie

The Sunday Times Sri Lanka

In fact the Right to Information Bill which should have gone to parliament much earlier and become law by now obviates the need for such bodies as ...

 

UK

We would never have known John Bercow claimed £172 for a taxi were it not for the Freedom of ...

The Independent

Discovering fresh details of the Speaker's travel and accommodation costs would never have been possible but for the Freedom of Information (FoI) ...

 

Pakistan

CRTI rejects amendments to Right to Information Act

The News International

PESHAWAR: Rejecting the amendments to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Right to Information Act 2013, the Coalition on Right to Information (CRTI) has ...

 

India

Soldier on trial for 27 years for a 'secret' that never was

Hindustan Times

... retired lieutenant general Nirmal Puri found the “classified” information he allegedly leaked was freely available under the Right to Information Act.

 

Ireland

Adopted people to gain right to information on birth parents

Irish Times

Planned legislation that would offer up to 50,000 adopted people a legal right to information about their birth parents for the first time has been ...

 

Philippine

Palace says it never wavered in pushing for Freedom of Information Bill

Philippine Information Agency

MANILA, July 30 --Malacañang remains committed to pursue the passage of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill to achieve more transparency in the ...

 

UK

Police overtime costs up due to staff shortages

BBC News

One Met Police officer received an overtime payment of £45,000 last year, a Freedom of Information request found. The overtime bill for officers and ...

 

 

 

 

Transparency and Right to Information Program
-------------------------------------------- 
Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives, Pakistan (CPDI-Pakistan)
Tel: +92 (0) 51-2375158-9; 4319430
URL: 
www.cpdi-pakistan.org