PIC directs Defence Ministry to provide information to petitioner

Islamabad: The Pakistan Information Commission (PIC) has held that information pertaining to retirement benefits of Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff and all the three services chiefs of army, navy and air force as well as to all three star officers of the armed forces is a public document in terms of RTI Act 2017 and should be provided to the within seven days of the order to the petitioner Farhatullah Babar.

Copies of the order dated May 12 have been sent to the Secretary Defence and the petitioner as well as placed on the web page of the Commission as a public document.

The order was passed on an appeal filed by former Senator Farhatullah Babar in August 2020 against the ministry of defence which denied him not only information about perks and privileges as well as refused to provide him a copy of rules and regulations governing the entitlement of perks and privileges of general officers of armed forces.

In its order the PIC said that the Acts, Rules and Regulations governing retirement benefits are public records not only under the provisions of the RTI Act 2017 but also in line with the judgments of Supreme Court of Pakistan. The Secretary Defence as the Principal Officer of the Ministry is legally bound to not only provide it to the petitioner but also publish it on the web site of the Ministry as required in the Act.

The Defence ministry had claimed exemption from providing the information on the ground that it was a defence related matter.

Rejecting it the PIC upheld the contention of the petitioner that the retirement benefits of army officers had no nexus with the defence and security of the country. Further the retirement benefits fell under the category of welfare activities which was not exempted under the law.

The petitioner had contended that by refusing to give information about post retirement perks and privileges the defence ministry was “treading a dangerously slippery road”.

A grave implication of refusal to provide this information is that people will think that “retirement benefits and perks are doled out to General Officers arbitrarily, whimsically, at random, in the discretion of one or few individuals and without any rules and regulations”

The last hearing in the appeal was held on March 7. The petitioner maintained that his question was prompted when a former army chief was allotted 90 acres of prime land in retirement benefit. He said when he raised the issue in the senate the ISPR dismissed his concern in an angry tweet but did not answer the query.

The order was made public eight weeks after the last hearing held in the open at which the representative of the defence ministry was also present. Two of the three Commissioners including the chief commissioner Mohammad Azam and Information Commissioner Zahid Abdullah signed the order.