Three Years for Transparency: Sports Directorate Shames Face Before RTI Commission

musarrat ullah jan -

 

Musarrat  Ullah Jan – Kikxnow Digital creator

In 2022, a Peshawar-based journalist, driven by a commitment to public information, filed a Right to Information (RTI) request under Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's (KPK) RTI law. His aim was simple: to uncover basic details about an award show held for individuals with disabilities by the KP Sports Department. He sought to know the total expenditure, the number of participating athletes, and whether any private entity was contracted for recording or coverage.

But the Provincial Sports Directorate totally disregarded the journalist's 2022 complaint. Three Director Generals appeared and disappeared within three years, but the application lay in files and nothing was heard from the side of the respondent. The journalist's information quest came to a dead end. At last, under the complaint number 9864, the KP Information Commission issued a requisition order to the Sports Department, making the response compulsory.

And then. at last! On July 14, 2025, the Sports Department put out its response to the three-year-old RTI request. The reply, received on July 15, 2025, showed the following:

The award ceremony for persons with disabilities cost PKR 300,000.

25 players took part, chosen via social media.

No private firm was contracted for recording or making the awards.

Locally, the awards were bought for under PKR 100,000, and so a tender was not considered necessary.

Every athlete or award recipient was given PKR 5,000.

After getting the much-awaited news, the journalist wrote a thank-you note to the KP Information Commission, thanking and asking that complaint number 9864 now be discarded. But he also made an important point: "Please give such departments less time in the future so that the public can get their constitutional right promptly. A one-page answer after a three-year wait should certainly not be acceptable."

This tale is a true example of the constant struggle for transparency, the right of the public to information, and the administrative lethargy that is so characteristic of our nation. But at the same time, it also underlines the imperative need of the RTI law and the Information Commission, whose resilience finally unearthed the information.

#RTI #KPK #Peshawar #Pakistan #Sports #Transparency #Accountability #PublicInformation

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