Article 19-A of Pakistan’s Constitution recognises citizens’ right to access information in matters of public importance. Federal and provincial right-to-information (RTI) laws subsequently established information commissions to help enforce this constitutional guarantee.

These commissions were intended to function independently of government influence, each comprising a retired bureaucrat, a senior jurist and a civil society representative. This composition was designed to bring different perspectives into the interpretation and enforcement of the right to information, including representation from civil society.

That intended balance, however, is increasingly disappearing.

Each commission has a retired bureaucrat and senior jurist, filling two of the three slots, barring Balochistan, which has four seats. However, the civil-society seats in the federal commission and Sindh have remained vacant since January 2024, in Punjab since March 2025 and in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) since April 2026. One of the appointed commissioners also serves as the chief information commissioner (CIC).

Balochistan offers a somewhat different picture. Although its RTI law, passed in 2021, required an information commission to be established within 120 days, the body only began functioning in 2025. Two commissioners were eventually appointed, including a civil-society representative, but the positions of the CIC and another commissioner remain vacant.

Pakistan has laws guaranteeing citizens access to information and commissions meant to enforce them. But when those watchdogs are themselves understaffed, slow and difficult to navigate, how meaningful is the right to know?

Pakistan has laws guaranteeing citizens access to information and commissions meant to enforce them. But when those watchdogs are themselves understaffed, slow and difficult to navigate, how meaningful is the right to know?

This raises a fundamental question: what happens to an institution established to represent the public interest when the public’s own voice is missing?

The missing third perspective

Zahid Abdullah, a former commissioner at the federal Pakistan Information Commission, says commissioners from........

© Dawn (Magazines)