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Karachi-The website of Sindh Assembly has stopped functioning after United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has ended its contract, according to Assembly Secretary Hadi Bux Buriro.

He told The News on Sunday that the two-year project was funded by USAid and its term has now expired.

According to him, the assembly will now run this website from its own budget. The USAid had obtained an “expensive” licence for running this system; a new, cheaper licence has been acquired from PTCL, he said, adding that the process was delayed for some weeks, but the website will be back online by Tuesday (tomorrow).

Buriro said that this year they will arrange funds for running the website under the telephone head, and hoped that from next year special funds will be earmarked for it.

Jeremiah A. Knight, the spokesman for the US Embassy in Islamabad, expressed his inability to provide any information about the possible ending of the project. He said that although USAid is a US government agency, there was a separate staff at the embassy which dealt with its projects.

The Sindh Assembly’s website was part of US government’s $9.3 million Pakistan Legislative Strengthening Project that was launched in four provincial and national assemblies.

It was aimed at strengthening parliamentary institutions and processes of national and provincial legislatures and providing an opportunity to general public to access the legislative process and get involved in government affairs.

Meanwhile, various citizens groups have expressed their concern over sudden stoppage of the website.

A representative of an NGO, Shehri-Citizens for a Better Environment (Shehri-CBE), said that in “participatory democracy,” citizens were required to know as to how their representatives work and monitor their performance.

“This was an ‘interactive website’ that was providing information to the citizens about legislators’ role. This was ‘a window and tool’ of transparency, which the citizens were using to get information about legislation that affects them,” he said.

The Shehri-CBE representative said that they have “difficulty” in getting access to proposed bills pertaining to amenity plots and changes in building control laws because of non-functioning of the website. “Instead of spending money on purchasing bullet proof vehicles for ministers, it would be advisable for the provincial government to spend funds for running the website for the sake of transparency. If the government has no money, it should consult the citizens groups who may arrange funds for it,” he said.

Syed Adil Gilani of Transparency International (TI), Pakistan, suspected some foul play, and said that the National Assembly’s website was functioning and information was being provided daily. He complained that transparency rules were not being followed in Sindh, which prompted the TI to approach Sindh High Court against Karachi Building Control Authority (KBCA). The SHC had ordered on September 10 that all relevant information about 500 projects be provided on its web site within seven days but one-and-a-half months have passed and the KBCA was not following the court’s order, he said.

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