Right of Access to Information Act, 2017

What it is

The Right of Access to Information Act, 2017 gives statutory effect, at the federal level, to Article 19A of the Constitution — the right to information inserted by the Eighteenth Amendment in 2010. It applies to federal public bodies: ministries and divisions, attached departments, statutory bodies, and bodies owned, controlled or substantially funded by the federal government [THE FULL DEFINITION, INCLUDING COURTS AND TRIBUNALS AND PUBLICLY FUNDED NGOs — TO BE VERIFIED BY REVIEWING LAWYER]. A citizen may request any record; the designated official must respond within ten working days, extendable once [TIME LIMITS — TO BE VERIFIED BY REVIEWING LAWYER]. Public bodies also carry proactive publication duties — organisational information, budgets, and categories of held records are to be published without waiting for a request.

Disclosure is the rule and exemption the exception. The Act exempts defined categories — national security and defence, international relations, personal privacy, legally privileged material and commercially confidential third-party information — subject to severability and public-interest considerations [THE EXEMPTION STRUCTURE AND SECTION NUMBERS — TO BE VERIFIED BY REVIEWING LAWYER]. Enforcement sits with the Pakistan Information Commission, a three-member body with the powers of a civil court. It hears complaints against refusals and silence, and its orders bind the public body. The Act repealed the Freedom of Information Ordinance, 2002 [TO BE VERIFIED BY REVIEWING LAWYER].

What changed

The statute itself has not been significantly amended since enactment [ANY AMENDMENT — TO BE VERIFIED BY REVIEWING LAWYER]; the movement is institutional and judicial. The Commission has built a body of decisions ordering disclosure across ministries and statutory bodies, and the Islamabad High Court has treated its orders as enforceable, while gaps in commissioner appointments and thin resourcing have slowed throughput at times [CURRENT COMPOSITION AND PENDENCY — TO BE VERIFIED BY REVIEWING LAWYER]. The federal Act sits alongside separate provincial regimes — Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (2013), Sindh (2016) and Balochistan (2021) — each with its own commission, so the right forum depends on which government holds the record. As of mid-2026 the federal Act is in force and in regular use.

Who is affected

Federal public bodies and their designated officials carry the compliance burden. The right belongs to citizens — journalists, researchers, litigants and ordinary requesters — but businesses are affected on both sides of the counter: a company can use the Act (through a citizen requester) to obtain records of regulatory decisions, licensing files and government contracts, and a company's own submissions to federal regulators can become the target of a third party's request, with the commercial-confidence exemption as the main shield.

What to do

Requesters should identify the record precisely, file with the public body's designated official, keep proof of filing, diarize the statutory deadline, and complain to the Pakistan Information Commission on refusal or silence rather than writing repeat letters. Companies supplying sensitive information to federal bodies should mark confidential material as such at the point of submission and record why disclosure would cause commercial harm, so the exemption can be substantiated if a request lands. Public bodies should appoint and train designated officials, index their records, and publish proactively — most complaints the Commission upholds begin as simple silence.