Over One Year On: KPCTA Yet to Provide RTI Records on Employees' Degrees, Recruitment and Regulations, Complaint Still Pending Before Information Commission

musarrat ullah jan -

 

Musarrat Ullah Jan , kikxNow , Digital Creator

PESHAWAR: A Right to Information (RTI) request seeking records related to the academic qualifications, degree verification, recruitment process and governing regulations of former employees of the Tourism Corporation Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (TCKP), now serving in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Culture and Tourism Authority (KPCTA), has remained unresolved for more than a year, raising fresh concerns over transparency and public access to information.

According to official documents, investigative journalist Musarrat Ullah Jan submitted an RTI application to KPCTA on 7 April 2025 under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Right to Information Act. The application requested copies of the final academic qualifications and degrees of all former TCKP employees currently serving in KPCTA, details of the degree verification process, the names of institutions that verified the degrees, verification reports, and information on whether any discrepancies were identified during the verification exercise.

The application also sought copies of the regulations approved in principle by the Chairman of the KPCTA Board of Directors, any subsequent amendments, the dates and meetings in which those regulations were discussed and ratified, details of the recruitment process followed for former TCKP employees, internal audit and oversight reports from the past two years, findings relating to recruitment and degree verification, and records of public consultations or stakeholder meetings held during the restructuring of TCKP and its integration into KPCTA.

After the statutory response period expired without the requested information being provided, the applicant filed Complaint No. 12539 before the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Commission in June 2025.

More than a year later, as of July 2026, the applicant states that the requested information has still not been supplied and the complaint remains pending before the Commission.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Right to Information Act guarantees citizens the legal right to obtain public information within prescribed timelines, subject only to exemptions provided under the law. Transparency advocates argue that prolonged delays in responding to RTI requests undermine the principles of openness, accountability and citizens' right to know.

The requested information relates to matters of significant public interest, including the qualifications of public employees, the verification of academic credentials, recruitment procedures, board-approved regulations governing the authority, internal oversight mechanisms and the administrative restructuring that followed the transition from TCKP to KPCTA.

It remains unclear why the requested records have not been provided more than a year after the application was filed, or when the Information Commission is expected to issue a final decision on the pending complaint.

This report is based on the RTI application, the complaint filed before the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Commission and the available documentary record. It does not allege wrongdoing or misconduct by KPCTA or any individual, but highlights the prolonged delay in providing information sought under the Right to Information law.

#RightToInformation #RTI #KPCTA #TCKP #KhyberPakhtunkhwa #Transparency #Accountability #AccessToInformation #OpenGovernment #PublicRecords #InvestigativeJournalism #PublicInterest #FreedomOfInformation #GoodGovernance #Pakistan #InformationCommission #RuleOfLaw #TransparencyMatters #PublicAccountability #Journalism

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