Bangladesh has been without an Information Commission for over 14 months, leaving citizens unable to exercise their constitutional right to access public information.
Despite repeated calls from rights groups and a High Court directive to reconstitute the commission, the government has taken no visible steps.
The Information Commission, established to uphold citizens’ right to information, has remained inactive since the fall of the authoritarian Awami League regime, for the first time in the country’s history.
The government is not taking any initiative to appoint the chief information commissioner and other commissioners in line with the Right to Information (RTI) Act despite the directive from the High Court.
Its absence, experts warn, is eroding transparency, accountability, and public trust.
"It seems the government has no headache in reconstituting the commission," said Hamidul Islam Hillol, an activist on the right to information.
According to the RTI Act, the Information Commission consists of the chief information commissioner and two other commissioners, at least one of whom shall be a woman.
The absence of the commissioners has been disrupting the commission's functioning for almost 14 months.
"Without commissioners, the Information Commission is meaningless. This directly undermines citizens' constitutional right to access information. This also undermines transparency, accountability and the overall governance system," said Advocate Muzahedul Islam Shahin, a Supreme Court lawyer. Following a writ petition filed by a journalist, the High Court on 31 August issued a rule, asking the government to inform it by 2 November of steps taken in this regard.
The government, however, did not respond to the HC rule. When the matter was brought to the court’s attention, the state sought more time, and the court granted two weeks, seeking a report by 17 November.
Barrister Nishat Mahmood, a lawyer of the writ petitioner, on Friday told the media that the HC bench of Justice Kazi Zinat Hoque and Justice Aynun Nahar Siddiqua had asked the Information Ministry to submit a report within 60 days. ““Neither any report was submitted nor any action was taken.”
“Despite the court’s directive, there is still no sign of the ministry taking any initiative to reconstitute the Information Commission. It is regrettable,” said Nishat Mahmood.
Although the President appoints the information commissioners, the administrative processes, including vetting and preparation, are handled by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
It had earlier said it would reconstitute the commission by July, but failed to act.
Sources said the relevant files have been gathering dust in the offices of the information adviser and secretary with no visible progress.
No official comment was provided by either the ministry or the adviser’s office in this regard.
Secretary Mahbuba Farjana had earlier said she had sent the file to the adviser’s office.
This correspondent repeatedly tried to contact her over the phone on Friday, but she did not receive the calls.
Some other officials in the ministry also declined to make any comments.
Transparency International Bangladesh and some other organisations in media statements had expressed disappointment and concern over the failure to reconstitute the commission for more than a year.
Rights activists called upon the government to activate the commission without any delay.
Hillol said the interim government is working for state reforms, but no steps have been taken to make the Information Commission functional or to undertake the necessary reforms to the RTI Act.
Mentioning that the current situation is unprecedented globally, he said it is now necessary to include a provision in the law to prevent such prolonged vacancies in the future.
Echoing Hillol, Qadaruddin Shishir, a pioneering fact-checker in Bangladesh, said there should be provisions to ensure that the Information Commission does not remain ineffective for so long, which should be done through an amendment to the RTI Act.
According to the RTI Act, the Information Commission is responsible for resolving complaints within 75 days when citizens are denied access to information from any office. However, the absence of commissioners means citizens have been unable to lodge appeals or receive redress when information requests are denied.
No hearings have been held since 5 September 2024, as the posts of information commissioners have remained vacant since that date. Against this backdrop, complaints continue to pile up. The Information Commission has received several hundred complaints in the last 14 months.
Md Mizanur Rahman Khandaker, a director at the commission, acknowledged that they received a number of complaints, but these are not being disposed of in the absence of commissioners.
In the absence of an Information Commission, citizens are being denied services after filing RTI applications as complaints are neither heard nor resolved.
As a result, the free flow of information is being hampered, while a culture of secrecy and reluctance to disclose information continues across government offices.
Ruhi Naz, deputy director of Research Initiatives Bangladesh, said restoring the Information Commission is not optional; it is a constitutional duty. “Without it, the right to information collapses into fiction. So, the first and most urgent step should be to immediately appoint the chief information commissioner and the two other commissioners.”
Courtesy: Daily Sun.
Bd-pratidin English/TR
