PIOs asked to play their role efficiently

Sahibzada Afridi

KOHAT: Chief Commissioner Right To Information (RTI) Azmat Hanif Orakzai has said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is the first province which had enforced RTI Act 2013 in line with the Article 19-A of the Constitution of the country which truly empowered the citizens and introduced good governance, self accountability and transparency in the government departments and institutions.

This he said while addressing a seminar arranged for local bodies representatives and Public Information Officers (PIOs) in District Council Hall Kohat on Wednesday. The seminar was also addressed by the District Nazim Muhammad Nasim Afridi and Deputy Commissioner Khalid Ilyas and assured their full cooperation on implementation on RTI Act in letter and spirit. They also announced to make the RTI Act part of the Kohat Dost Mohim.

The salient features and achievements of the Commission said that it has so far received 10984 application since 2013 out of which required information was provided to 6845 and decisions were made on 3612 while 449 were in the process, Orakzai added.

Chief Commissioner declared, the Officer concerned of any provincial department and institution is bound to provide information to the citizen in 20 days, if failed, he is summand in the commission and in case of unsatisfactory answer, he has to face fine adding that despite fine, if the same officer again failed to provide information, the commission proceed against him in the Court where he could got imprisonment and fine.