Public Information Officer, Establishment Division is directed to provide the following requested information to the Applicant, with intimation to this commission, within 10 working days of the receipt of this Order:
- “Whether it is a fact that large number of the government officers are not submitting their assets declaration regularly as required by law. If Yes, please provide the details of the action taken against them.
- Whether it is a fact that Establishment Division has decided not to promote those officers who are not submitting their assets declaration, if Yes, please provide the notification(s) and circular(s) issued in this regard.
- List of the officers, their designation and current posting details, whose promotion is halted due to non-submission of their asset’s declaration to date.
- List of the officers, their designation and their current posting, who have not submitted their assets declaration during their whole service.
- Did Establishment Division conducted any inquiry / inquiries regarding the increase in assets of the officers, if yes, please provide list of the officers against which inquiries are conducted and also provide the copies of the inquiry reports that are concluded to date.
Provide the list of the cases, or list of the officers whose cases are sent to any agency for verification regarding the increase in their assets, along with the details of their current status.”.
The commission maintained that, on the balance, public interest outweighs any harm to personal privacy of civil servants who fail to fulfil their obligation of submitting details of their assets.
The commission held that it is only through the disclosure of the requested information that citizens of Pakistan, who pay taxes for, inter alia, the salaries of civil servants, will be able to know the following:
names, designations and number of officers who are not fulfilling their obligation of submitting their assets declaration;
Frequency and duration of the failure on the part of officers in submitting assets declaration; and
action taken, if any, by the Establishment Division against officers who failed to submit their assets declaration.