PAKISTAN is probably the only country in the world whose leaders prefer to discuss their internal administrative matters by calling meetings of state officials in foreign lands.
In the last week of July, two Karachi citizens decided to break the stony silence and wrote to the chief minister and the chief secretary Sindh to seek information under the Sindh Freedom of Information Act 2006 and Article 19A of the Constitution of Pakistan.
In their joint application they argued that it was the right of every citizen to seek information from any government functionary, especially on matters relating to theuse ofofncialfunds.
The request for information sought facts and records relating to the visit of the Sindh chief minister, ministers, parliamentarians and other government officials who visited the UAE from January 2010 todate, for attending meetings related to Sindh, party meetings or any other individual or collective meetings with party leaders.The applicants requested that the information for all such individuals may be provided under the following heads: a) name of individual; b) date and duration of each visit to the UAE; c) expenses incurred on each visit; d) the government budget head under which expenses were paid; e) clarification if any individual paid expenses from his or her own pocket or if the expenses were paid for by the political party.
While the applicants are hopeful, most others have termed this accountability exercise a waste of time by a bunch of dreamy idealists.
