PESHAWAR:To commemorate the International Access to Information Day 2022, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Commission (KPIC) held a workshop on Right to Information (RTI) Act 2013 at the Institute of Management Sciences Hayatabad here Thursday.
Speaking at the workshop, Chief Information Commissioner (CIC), KPIC, Mrs. Farah Hamid Khan said that the theme of the Day is artificial intelligence, e-governance and access to information which stresses on making all the information digitally available. “By not giving citizens the facility of filing online RTI applications, the dream of digital Khyber Pakhtunkhwa or e-governance cannot be achieved.
She said that the law of the RTI provides information to people about their resources and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was privileged to have enacted this law before all the other provinces. She added that until 2013, the citizens in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa did not have access to any information that was acted upon by any government agency and access to information of public interest was not easy for an ordinary person to access.
Regarding the implications of the RTI Act, she said that the RTI Act empowered people against administrative corruption, irregularities and irresponsible behavior of the administrative machinery.
An awareness lecture was also organized by the KPIC on the Right to Information at IM Sciences Auditorium. The worthy CIC explained the importance of the Right to Information Act.
Besides the students and teachers of different departments of IM Sciences, students and teachers from University of Peshawar also attended the seminar.
Addressing the awareness session, Ex-Chief Information Commissioners KPIC, Sahibzada Muhammad Khalid, Azmat Hanif Orakzai and MPA Sayed Fakhar Jahan said that RTI Act enabled citizens to effectively access information held by public bodies in hope to increase transparency and accountability.
The speakers said that stipulated time frame is mentioned in the Act for retrieval of information. Failure of authorities to provide information under the given stipulations and conditions, permitted citizens to file complaints with RTI commissions, they added.
An ‘RTI Champion Award 2022’ were awarded in recognition for advancing the right to a fellow category of citizens, journalists and Public Information Officers (PIOs) in public bodies of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as an honor to his/her services.