The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Commission has taken action against government institutions for failure to provide the desired information to the public.
Information Commissioners Muhammad Irshad and Arshad Ahmed at the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Commission, Peshawar, heard complaints of citizens against government institutions on Thursday. Public Information Officers of various government institutions, including the Local Government Department, Peshawar Development Authority, Public Health Engineering Department, Pakhtunkhwa Highways Authority, Hayatabad Medical Complex, and Central Jail appeared before the commission in the hearing. Pakhtunkhwa Highways Authority and the Directorate of Social Welfare provided the required information in the hearing. In which a citizen named Kashif Shahzad from Vehari district of Punjab asked the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Highways Authority for details of the construction of roads during 2020-2025, the steps taken for their repair, the funds received by the agency from 2020-2024, ongoing projects, weight checking stations (weighing hooks) built on the roads to prevent prohibited weight, and the vehicles used by the agency, while Aminullah, a resident of Bannu, asked the Directorate of Social Welfare for details of the credentials, qualifications, educational and interview marks of the candidate selected for the overseas post, details of the selection committee and its meeting minutes. Apart from this, in four other cases, the Prisons Department, Peshawar Development Authority, Soil Conservation Department and Public Health Engineering Department assured to provide the required information to the citizens within 10, 7, 3, and 5 days, respectively. In these cases, citizens, Sadia Mazhar from Punjab asked the Inspector General Jail Khajat for the number of jails in the province, the capacity of prisoners in them and the current total number of prisoners, a citizen named Anwar Iqbal from Peshawar asked the PDA for the registration of the plot and other records, Kashif Hussain asked the Soil Conservation for the documents of the selected candidate for the post of clerk, while Azizullah from Bannu asked the Public Health Engineering Department for the details of the remaining candidates recruited with him, while it was decided to take action against the concerned officer for the absence of the Public Information Officer of the Health Department from the hearing. The Local Government Department, Mardan, was ordered to submit the information required by the citizen to the commission within 2 days.
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