Only two out of 54 Pakistani federal and provincial departments initially provided information information requested by the Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI) in a recent study.
Twenty-five departments responded positively but after the applicant got help from the federal or provincial ombudsman.
CPDI concluded that the federal and provincial governments should repeal the existing information laws and enact new stronger new ones.
The CPDI researchers asked government departments for copies of the contracts of the development projects carried out in financial year 2010-11 along with the details about the utilization of the development funds.
The requests were made in the 1st quarter of 2012 under Article 19-A of the Constitution, Freedom of Information Ordinance 2002 and Section 137 of Local Government Ordinance 2001.
A total of 27 information requests did not yield any result.
The ombudsman in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa “proved to be most effective” as information was provided in case of 16 out of total 22 information requests after complaint was lodged with the KP Ombudsman, according the study.
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