ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Information Commission (PIC) has ruled that the National Assembly speaker’s decision to classify certain records cannot restrict citizens’ right to information unless the ruling gives reasons showing that the harm from disclosure outweighs public interest.
The commission issued the ruling while deciding two appeals filed by a journalist, Sadia Mazhar, against the National Assembly Secretariat.
One of the appeals sought information about officers who had joined the National Assembly Secretariat on deputation from January 2018 onwards, including their par-ent departments, grades, appointment dates, promotions and records relating to their induction into the secretariat.
The NA secretariat had argued that minutes of meetings, official file notes and recommendations relating to the employees had been classified under the speaker’s ruling of October 4, 2022, issued under the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly, 2007.
The speaker’s ruling had declared various records, including committee minutes, briefing material, working papers and certain personal records of employees as classified for the purposes of the Right of Access to Information Act, 2017.
PIC held that the speaker, being the head of the National Assembly Secretariat, couldexercise the powers under Section 7(f) of the Right of Access to Information Act despite the provision specifically referring to the minister-in-charge of a public body.
However, the commission stressed that such power was subject to the statutory requirements of the law.
The commission further held that the speaker’s ruling was neither prospectively nor retrospectively operative because it failed to meet the legal criteria required for classification under Section 7(f) of the Act.
Regarding the employees’ records sought by the applicant, the commission noted that appointment and promotion notifications were already published in the official gazette. It therefore found no legal basis for withholding the informa-tion.
It also dismissed the secretariat’s preliminary objections regarding the nonprovision of a CNIC copy by the applicant and her non-appearance in person, declaring both grounds legally unsustainable under the Act. It noted that information already published in the official gazette or otherwise publicly accessible cannot be withheld.
The commission directed the National Assembly’s deputy secretary/designated officer to provide the applicant with a specific link to information available on the secretariat’s website and furnish certified copies of the remaining requested information, including gazette-notified records, within 10 days of receiving the order.