LAHORE: Additional Chief Secretary Punjab Irum Bukhari has said that access to public information is a basic right of the every citizen and decisions taken for this purpose should be implemented on the emergency basis.
She said this while chairing a meeting of the Provincial Implementation Committee under the Punjab Transparency and Right to Information Act (TRI) here on Monday.
It is pertinent to mention here that this committee was set up on the direction of the Lahore High Court with a view to ensuring effective implementation of the Punjab Transparency and Right to Information Act, 2013 in all government institutions.
This committee is to review the steps taken to improve the work of Public Information Officers and ensure its implementation. The meeting was attended by Chief Information Commissioner Punjab, Information and Culture Wing and representatives of PITB.
The Chief Information Commissioner briefed on various objectives of the Punjab Information Commission and the Provincial RTI Implementation committee.
Chief Information Commissioner Mehboob Qadir apprised the Additional Chief Secretary of the proposals for digitization of the Right to Information Act, 2013, establishment of RTI Courts in the Commission and amendments in the law to improve the performance of the Punjab Information Commission.
The Additional Chief Secretary directed to implement the proposed amendments in the law as soon as possible. For the implementation of RTI court in the Punjab Information Commission it is essential to amend the law, she stated.
The meeting also nominated the Information and Culture department as the focal point for the Provincial RTI Committee which would be empowered to convey all the decisions of the committee to the concerned departments and submit its report to the committee.
The Additional Chief Secretary also directed to convene a monthly meeting of the Provincial RTI Implementation Committee. Expressing concern over the conduct of a seminar by the Chief Information Commiss-ioner, she said that indoor and outdoor activities should be suspended in view of the severe wave of corona, instead must hold webinars for the purpose with the help of PITB.
On this occasion, the Chief Information Commissioner also presented the two-year performance report of the Information Commission to the Additional Chief Secretary.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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