This commission maintains that both the letter and spirit of the Right of Access to Information Act 2017 dictate the disclosure of copy of the advertisement published for hiring the services of National Coordinator for the Development project “Coordination / Common Unit to Manage Global Fund (TB, AIDS and Malaria)” along with the name and date of the newspaper in which it was published, list of the candidates who applied for the said post, along with the qualification and experience certificates of the short-listed candidates and those of the selected candidate, copy of the selection criteria for the selection, list of the candidates who were called for the test / interview, means of verification of sending call letters to the short-listed candidates through which they were informed for interview, (protecting their private information such as their personal E-mail address, residential addresses, telephone numbers etc, copy of the attendance sheet of the candidates who appeared in the interview for the said post,copy of the mark sheet and notes of selection committee members for each interviewed candidate, Date on which application of Dr. Bushra Jameel was received for this post, along with the copy of the Ministry’s Dak Register having Diary number of the Dr. Bushra Jameel’s application receipt, copy of the marks, all notes and summary regarding the hiring of Dr. Bushra Jameel’s services and details pertaining to the salary, perks and privileges given to the National Coordinator for the Development project.
This commission maintains that educational degrees and experience certificates of all candidates who applied for the said post cannot be disclosed in public interest, as requested by the Appellant. However, the public interest dictates those educational degrees of short-listed/selected candidates for government posts, their CVs, marks obtained during the recruitment process, remarks of the members of the selection committee during the interview cannot be withheld on the grounds of privacy as it this information is critical to determine the level of transparency and fairness adopted in the recruitment process. Therefore, none of the provisions of this Act, including Section 7 (g) can be attracted to withhold the disclosure of the requested information. The personal/private information means CNIC details, residential addresses, telephone numbers, bank accounts/financial details and health conditions.