ISLAMABAD, Dec 2 (APP): Members of the National Assembly belonging to the Young Parliamentarians’ Forum (YPF) Wednesday were briefed on Federal Right to Information (RTI) Law at a virtual capacity building session held here.
The session was organised by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT) in collaboration with United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Government of Canada.
President, PILDAT, Ahmed Bilal Mehboob gave a detailed presentation to the young MNAs that the Federal Right of Access to Information Law had been in place since October 2017, said a press release issued here.
The law is progressive in nature and is in keeping with the new wave of Right to Information laws across Pakistan, of which Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab Right to information (RTI) laws have been ranked as the best laws.
In addition to sharing key points of the law, he said that according to the law, the Federal Information Commission has to submit its bi-annual progress report to the Parliament and also update the same on its website.
He informed the participants that they should raise a question in the Parliament about the timely submission of the reports by the Information Commission and should review the reports, which would help the commission to become proactive and also provide the young parliamentarians with an opportunity to interact and learn about the federal RTI law.
Romina Khursheed Aalm, Member YPF, said that the Parliamentary Committees were the most effective for holding the institutions accountable so the Information Commission should also be answerable in the Parliamentary Committee. She proposed to move a joint resolution from the platform of the YPF to this effect.
Uzma Riaz, MNA, General Secretary YPF, thanked PILDAT for arranging an informative briefing session and termed the session as extremely informative.
She said that YPF members required more and more informed capability-building sessions, and hoped that such sessions would also be conducted in person in the future as the coronavirus pandemic eases.
Among others, the session was attended by Dr.Shazia Sobia Aslam, MNA (PPPP), Wajiha Akram, MNA (PTI), Romina Khursheed Aalam, MNA (PML-N) and Shahid Ahmed, MNA, (PTI).
