The Punjab government has enacted a law on access to information and transparency, but the previous and current governments have failed to implement it.
This law was passed in 2013 and despite its implementation, its implementation is still far from over. Powerful bureaucracy seems to be the biggest obstacle in the way of this law.
From the Deputy Commissioner’s Office to the District Police Officer, Education Department,Revenue, Health Department, Finance, Excise, Rural Development, Social Welfare, Small Dams, Highways, Minerals, Construction,Building, Forest and other provincial departments have no understanding of this law.
The Chakwal police has even banned the media from providing information. Keeping the local, national print and electronic media away from the daily crime rate is the specialty of the Chakwal district police officer.
The information requested by this law is not given to the applicant and under this law those who want to get information are sent to the other offices.
The heads of all departments in the district and the public relations officers created under the Access to Information Act are unaware of the law, which is why it does not appear to be being implemented.
That is why citizens and media representatives who want to benefit from this law face a variety of problems due to the lack of accurate information.