Two Pakistani states have taken somewhat delayed steps to implement recently passed right to information laws.
The Punjab government has established the Punjab Information Commission and appointed the commissioners.
One of them is Mukhtar Ahmed Ali. He is the founding director of a group that advocated for the new law, the Centre for Peace and Development Initiative. The Punjab law was passed in December 2013. A recent Express Tribune article said implementation was lagging.
In addition, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government completed the appointment of all its commissioners. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Commission has started training Public Information Officers. The Express Tribune also had criticized the K-P government for going too slowly.
A profile by Zahid Abdullah of the new K-P chief information officer begins:
Tall, lanky, pipe smoking heavy mustached-this is Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Information Commissioner Sahibzada Muhammad Khalid. I was curious to find what was going in the mind of this man who will be responsible for operationalizing and implementing Khyber Pakhtunkhwa RTI Act 2013 as I went to meet him in his office in Peshawar today.
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