Pakistan Information Commission seeks disclosure of travel allowances, perks and expenses of NA committees

The Pakistan Information Commission (PIC) has requested the National Assembly Secretariat to disclose detailed information about the expenditures, travel allowances, perks, and privileges of chairpersons and members of parliamentary standing committees and subcommittees. This directive, issued by Information Commissioner Ijaz Hassan Awan and Chief Information Commissioner Shoaib Ahmad Siddiqui, follows an appeal submitted by journalist Saddia Mazhar.

The PIC has given the NA Secretariat 10 days to provide specific responses to 13 questions under the Right to Information Act 2017, concerning the functioning and financial expenditures of parliamentary committees from January 2025. The journalist's original request, filed on June 21, sought information regarding the standing committees and subcommittees, the number of meetings, total expenses incurred on those meetings, travel allowances for committee members and chairpersons, and other perks and privileges.

Despite receiving a response from the NA Secretariat, Mazhar maintains that only the first question regarding the list of standing committees was satisfactorily answered. The PIC has acknowledged that substantial parliamentary information has been published online but stated that it does not adequately address the journalist's specific questions.

The PIC's directive emphasizes that public bodies must provide objective and specific responses to information requests in accordance with the RTI Act.

Brief written by urgent.news from Dawn's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.