The categories of information to be proactively disclosed under Section 5 of the Act have no bearing on the independence of the judiciary. Similarly, the information to be provided to the applicants under Section 6 of the Act is also not in conflict with the independence of the judiciary. Furthermore, the Public Information Officer to be designated under the Act will receive applications and can turn down any request for information which is likely to impact independence of the judiciary, relying on the relevant exemption clauses of Section 7 and 16 of the Act.
This commission is of the view that the constitutional right of access to information in matters of public importance can only be restricted on reasonable grounds supported by law. This commission holds that only provisions of this Act can restrict disclosure of any information.
This commission holds that requested information about “Rules Regulations, Policy for fixation of the judicial cases in the august Supreme Court of Pakistan, to enable a litigant to know about the expected turn/timing, when the case is likely to be fixed for hearing” should not only have been provided in response to the request filed by the citizen, it should have been proactively published on the web site of the Respondent under Section 5 (1) (a) and (b) of “the Act 2017”.
This Commission has observed, and the instant appeal reaffirms that information of public importance mentioned in Section 5 of the Act is not being published through the web site of federal public bodies, including the Respondent, Registrar, Supreme Court of Pakistan. In fact, the Web sites of federal public bodies contain generic information and not specific information as required under Section 5 of the Act. This is despite the fact that Principal Officer of each public body was required to ensure proactive disclosure of information through web site within 6 months of the commencement of the Right of Access to Information Act, 2017.
This commission has also noticed that even when Public Information Officer, (PIO) is designated under the Act, information to this effect is either not provided on the web site, or, if it is provided, it is not displayed at a prominent place on the web site.
This commission holds that the federal public bodies should ensure that the name, designation, telephone number and E-mail of the PIO is placed at top right corner of the home page of their web sites. Furthermore, as a PIO is designated by post, any change to this effect should be immediately updated on the web site.
This Commission maintains that the information proactively published under Section 5 of the Right of Access to Information Act 2017 should be ‘accessible’ for all citizens, including the blind, low-vision, physically disabled, speech and hearing impaired and people with other disabilities. Apart from the interpretation of ‘accessible’ in section 5 of the Act, section 15 (5) of the ICT Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2020 requires federal public bodies to ensure accessibility of web sites to the special needs of persons with disabilities and it is as under:
“The government shall ensure that all websites hosted by Pakistani website service providers are accessible for persons with disabilities”.