In the instant appeal the Appellant has requested information/documents about the procurements made by the National Book Foundation. The public body refused to provide disclosure of the requested information may cause damage to the financial interests of the Foundation which may give an unreasonable advantage to its competitors i.e. people/firms involved in the publishing books.
This commission rejects the stance of the public body and has allowed the appeal. The Managing Director, National Book Foundation is directed to provide the information at the earliest, but in any case, not later than 10 working days of the receipt of this Order.
The Respondent is also directed to take immediate steps to proactively share through the website all categories of information mentioned in Section 5 of the Right of Access to Information Act 2017 and submit the compliance report to the commission in the Template for the Compliance Report-Proactive Disclosure of Information under Section 5 of the Right of Access to Information Act 2017’. This template is available under the ‘Information Desk’ category at the website of the commission www.rti.gov.pk. The compliance report be submitted to this commission within 30 days of the receipt of this Order.