The Rawalpindi police refused to share the information about the utilisation of investigation budget requested by a citizen under the Punjab Transparency and Right to Information Act 2013.
Exercising “The Punjab Transparency and Right to Information Act 2013”, Syed Kauser Abbas – a social activist – has filed an information request on February 04, 2019 to the Rawalpindi Police to provide the information regarding the allocation of budget for the investigation of the First Information Reports (FIRs) and its’ utilisations.
The Police department did not respond to the information request within the stipulated time period mentioned in the law. The citizen approached the Punjab Information Commission (PIC) requesting to bound the public body to provide the information.
The PIC issued multiple notices with the directives to provide the requested information to the citizen but the Rawalpindi Police did not bother. Finally, the PIC issued a show-cause notice to City Police Officer (CPO) Rawalpindi for noncompliance of the law.
After the show cause notice the Rawalpindi Police responded to the Commission and refused to share complete information with the citizen.
The Rawalpindi Police in letter No 212/Inv dated July 28, 2019 stated that total budget for the investigation officers of Rawalpindi Police for the year 2017-18 is Rs 12186000.
The requisite information could not be provided at full extent under the Punjab Transparency and Right to Information Act 2013 as it is against the section 13(1) of the said act, Senior Superintendent of Police stated in the letter.
It is further stated that the rest of the information about the spending of this budget as it involves intelligence work and such information can cause risk for law and order situation.
Section 13(1) of “The Punjab Transparency and Right to Information Act 2013”, states that a public information officer may refuse an application for access to information where disclosure of the information shall or is likely to cause harm to- (a) national defence or security, public order or international relations of Pakistan.
When contacted the Syed Kauser Abbas said, he was informed on Wednesday by the PIC about the letter sent by the Rawalpindi Police in response to my information request.
“I have informed the PIC that I am not satisfied by the replay of Rawalpindi police as they are trying to hide the information about budget utilisation”, he said.
He maintained that PIC assured him that they will issue a notice to Rawalpindi Police with the directives to provide complete information.
Abbas added, the budget allocated for the investigation is public money and the public has the right to ask the public bodies where this money was spent.
Despite repeated attempts the Chief Information Commissioner at PIC could not be reached for the comments.