Senate body opposes making Whistle-blower Law part of RTI Bill

ISLAMABAD – Senate Select Committee on the Right to Information Bill 2016 Tuesday decided that the “Whistle-blower Law” would not be made part of the Bill.

The Senate Select Committee on RTI Bill 2016 met with its Chairman Senator Farhatullah Babar in the chair at the Parliament House and discussed the Whistle-blower Law in detail.

Farhatullah was in favour to make the Whistle-blower Law a part of the RTI Bill but other committee members, including Minister of State for Information Marriyum Aurangzeb, Senator Pervaiz Rashid and PPP Senator Rubina Khalid showed disagreement with the committee chairman in this regard.

Marriyum Auranzaib said the Whistle-blower Law would not be made part of the RTI Bill 2016 because officials could use it against each another.

After the meeting, Chairman Committee Farhatullah Babar told media that the RTI Bill 2016 will be tabled in next session of Senate for getting its approval.

Earlier, the Senate Select Committee had approved the RTI Bill 2016. The committee had also decided that the proposed Information Commission would consist of three members, including a grade 22 officer, a retired judge and a representative of civil society. The PM will have the authority of the appointment of three members of the commission.

The Senate and National Assembly Standing Committees will have the power to remove the members. The commission members age limit has been capped at 65-year at the time of appointment.

It was also decided in the meeting that the RTI Bill 2016 will not be applied to 20 years old record.

The committee had decided the appointment of staff above grade 16 in Information Commission would be made through Federal Public Service Commission, instead of Chief Information Commissioner and Commissioners.

Later, addressing international conference on Women Caucus Marriyum Aurangzeb said Pakistan is vigorously pursuing Sustainable Development Goals in line with Vision 2025 of the government.

The minister said a secretariat has been established in the Parliament to achieve SDGs and its units are working at the provincial level. She stressed the need for creating awareness about social and development programmes. She said media is being engaged to create awareness among masses. She said parliament, media, and the civil society are collaborating to cope with the challenges of malnutrition and health issues.

She said the government has also signed agreements with UNICEF and other world bodies in the areas of malnutrition, clean drinking water, health, education, climate change, and waste management. The minister said parliamentarians are also actively pursuing for SDGs.

She said media has an important role to play in the field of SDGs and every TV channel is bound to spend 10 per cent of its airtime on issues of human development.

This news was published in The Nation newspaper. Read complete newspaper of 15-Mar-2017 here.

Source: The Nation