Enhancing Empowerment of Women and Minorities of South Punjab through More Effective Use of RTI Law

The project aims to improve local governance and delivery of public services by creating awareness on ‘Punjab Transparency and Right to Information Act (PTRTIA) 2013’ among people of South Punjab especially women, minorities, media and civil society. This project is supported by the American people through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

 

Key Objectives:

  • To create awareness about the significance and use of Punjab Transparency and Right to Information Act (PTRTIA) among people of South Punjab especially women, minorities, media and civil society
  • To build the capacity of Public Information
    Officers (the persons designated in each public body under the PTRTIA
    to receive and answer the requests) on implementation of PTRTIA in
    South Punjab

 

Key Project Activities:

  • Conduct two Training Workshops of Public Information Officers (PIOs)/ Department Heads on use and implementation of PTRTIA to efficiently and effectively handle the Requests for Information in two Districts i.e. Bahawalpur and Lodhran.
  • Conduct four Briefing Sessions on usage of RTI Law especially for Women, Media, CSO’s and Minorities in Bahawalpur and Lodhran.

 

Anti-Fraud Hotline:

USAID/Pakistan has, in cooperation with the USAID Office of Inspector General, established the Anti-Fraud Hotline to provide an avenue for the reporting of fraud, waste, and abuse which may be associated with USAID funded projects in Pakistan. Complaints are handled with complete confidentiality and individuals are encouraged to report when corruption, fraud, waste or abuse may exist in the USAID/Pakistan projects. Reports can be filed anonymously via the easy-to-use Hotline (toll free number 0800 84700); e-mail at [email protected]; fax at 021-35390410; postal address at 5-C, 2nd Floor Khayban-e-Ittehad, Phase VII, DHA, Karachi, Pakistan; and on the website www.anti-fraudhotline.com.

PILDAT’s Work on Right to Information:

In 2004, PILDAT published a briefing paper for Pakistan’s Parliamentarians on the key aspects of Freedom of Information Ordinance (FoI) 2002.

In March 2013, PILDAT sought attendance records of the Members of the National Assembly and upon the Assembly declining PILDAT’s request, PILDAT sought the information invoking the FoI law. After a long-and multistage effort, PILDAT’s FoI application was upheld resulting in the National Assembly making MNAs’ attendance records public since.

In 2015, PILDAT’s work focused on the refinement of the RTI laws in Federal sphere and in Sindh. In Punjab, PILDAT focused on capacity building of Public Information Officers (PIO’s), Heads of Departments (HoDs) and Media. Jointly, PILDAT and Punjab Information Commission (PIC) have so far trained 108 PIO’s/ HoD’s in 13 Districts of Punjab.

In addition, PILDAT has provided support to the Punjab Information Commission (from February-July 2016) through seconding six short term Consultants (with financial support from DAI), to execute its primary functions of complaint redressal, awareness and training activities on RTI as well as maintaining its internal records for monitoring RTI implementation in the province.

Disclaimer:

The project, Enhancing Empowerment of Women and Minorities of South Punjab through More Effective Use of RTI Law, is made possible by the support of the American People through The United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the sole responsibility of PILDAT and do not necessarily reflect the view of USAID or the United States Government.

© 2018. PILDAT

Newsletter Signup :