The appeal is dismissed as harm to the legitimate privacy interests of NAB employees, their spouses and children far outweigh any public interest that the disclosure of the details of their assets may entail.
The commission observed that while privacy interests of public officials, their spouses and children will surely be compromised whereas disclosure of assets acting as a deterrence against corrupt practises, at best, is in the realm of possibilities. Legitimate privacy interests of citizens cannot be sacrificed on the altar of mere possible deterrence value of such disclosure against corruption, especially when laws are already available to investigate allegations of owning assets beyond known means of income.
The NAB was directed to proactively disclose performance reports, audit reports, evaluation reports, inquiry or investigative reports and other reports pertaining to its employees that have been finalized through its web site along with all categories of information through its web site as required under Section 5 of the Act 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 ‘Information Desk’ category at the web site of the commission www.rti.gov.pk. The compliance report be submitted to this commission by 28/11/2020.
The Respondent is directed to ensure accessibility of the information proactively published on its web site under Section 5 of the Right of Access to Information Act 2017 for all citizens, including the blind, low-vision, physically disabled, speech and hearing impaired and people with other disabilities and submit compliance report to this effect using ‘Web accessibility checklist’. This checklist is available under ‘Information Desk’ category at the web site of the commission www.rti.gov.pk. The compliance report be submitted to this commission by 29/11/2020.
The respondent is directed to put contact details of its designated Public Information Officer on its web site as required under Section 5 (1) (h)of the Act and submit notification to this effect to this commission within 10 working days of the receipt of this Order.