Over the years, there has been growing demands, the world over for freedom of information laws. FOI laws actually empower the citizen to determine how his/her money i.e. the public money is being spent. An information request can be about anything. It can be about how much public money is spent on purchasing cookies at the Mayor’s office for staff meetings in the UK or it can be about getting expenditure details of public hospitals.
Pakistan also has an FOI Ordinance which has been taken up by Sherry Rehman for revision and improvement. However, according to FOI Pakistani experts like the CPDI , the proposed FOI 2008 has major loopholes . Some of them are :
The bill proposes to repeal FOI Ordinance 2002 but makes no mention of the Balochistan Freedom of Information Act2005 and the Sindh Freedom of Information Act 2006. This is likely to create legal confusion
The time limit for disclosing information has been reduced from 21 to 14 days, which although may seem a benefit, may not actually provide enough time for efficiency regarding correct and full details being disclosed.
There is no provision for speedy disposal of information requests pertaining to urgent matters.
Interestingly, Sherry Rehman introduced a private member bill on FOI in 2004 when she was in the opposition. However, according to experts there is a huge difference leading some to remark, “ Either Sherry Rehman has changed her stance on FOI or the baboos have got the better of her.”
Perhaps one needs to work for freedom from the baboos before one calls for Freedom of information.