The Pakistan Information Commission (PIC) has issued an order to declassify all 20-year-old government reports, including those authored by commissions.
In its order issued on Monday, the commission directed the Interior Ministry to take measures in this regard. The PIC said that the government under the Right to Information (RTI) Act is bound to make public all such reports that are over two decades old. It maintained that such reports cannot be shrouded in secrecy for eternity.
The commission also explained the process to classify and declassify any report.
“While all federal public bodies are required to proactively publish all finalized reports, some of these reports, or some parts thereof, may be exempted from disclosure on legitimate security or other concerns.”
“However, these concerns need to be articulated through the recorded reasons of the minister in charge and submitted before this commission to determine that the harm from disclosure outweighs the public interest. Moreover, there is no blanket exemption to any finalized report,” the PIC order read.
The PIC maintained that no public body could deny access to public reports because some parts of them fall within the scope of the exception mentioned in Section 16 of the Act.
Under such conditions, those parts can be severed, and the rest should be made public as required under Section 16 (1) (i) of the Act.
The commission argued that good governance in the country could only be ensured if we give up the colonial era-like secrecy and follow the norms of the modern era where countries are run with transparency and secrecy is an exception.
“Therefore, it is the solemn responsibility of those running the affairs of the state to create a balance between protecting information from disclosure, on the justifiable ground through recorded reasons, and, proactively sharing of information in the public interest which has hitherto been kept shrouded in the veil of secrecy,” reads the order.
The Ministry of Interior has been asked to record the concerned minister’s reasons for excluding any paragraph/ part(s) of information from a report under Section 7 (f) of the Act.
The PIC also directed the ministry to submit the compliance report by September 30, 2021.