Formerly, Taliban launched storming attack on Kunduz province. Following the attack, the northern city fell to Taliban –one of the major urban areas for the first time since the Taliban government toppled. Seeking entry the insurgents closed off the only four access points into the city – effectively preventing troops from entering and civilians from fleeing. In addition to mentioned rampages –mass murder, gang rapes and house-to-house searches by Taliban death squads, implementation of Sharia, chopping up limbs of accused thieves are just some of the traumatic over views of Kunduz city, following the seizure of Talban.                

Amidst the worsening security condition everybody was expecting orders of dispatching fresh army battalion immediately be sent at the combat site. There was contradictory news of troops stationed near the city for more than 12 hours who didn’t retaliate on account of not being ordered. Who could have been behind this delay, is uncertain. Similarly, the news of Kanduz city being evacuated of insurgents was dwindling right and wrong. There are numerous queries clinging around the erroneous flow of information through respective public departments. It was perplexing which news was truly depicting the right picture of on ground situation. If the of information was properly disseminated and some media persons could be behind the hype –they should be interrogated. 

Following the tactless strategies pursued, earlier a media advocacy group accused the government of concealing the truth and not disseminating information to the people of Afghanistan. “Based on the law, the government must give information to people, otherwise the law is violated. The president’s office however insisted that efforts are underway to improve the dissemination of information. Nai’s claims come after contradictory reports emerged this week over the retaking of Kunduz by government troops. A number of MPs, meanwhile, concurred saying people are being kept in the dark about the situation in the country.  The failure to provide information by officials has caused the nation to lose trust in the government and as a result citizens are relying on unconfirmed reports and propaganda on social media platforms, said officials from Nai - a media supporting organization. They warned that if government continues to hold back information, it will be declared a violation of the Constitution. Though president Ashraf Ghani signed an Access to Information Law for Afghanistan it was for the first time journalists get access to information through state institutions but it is yet to be realized into practice. The ratification of law was a great win for media bodies and advocates working on rationalization of media laws. There are, however, still quite some way to go, given Afghanistan is worst plagued by widespread corruption, and having a great law on paper does not mean much if it is not implemented in practice. Implementation of the law is one of the biggest challenges. A joint working force was developed between presidential office and civil society to monitor the implementation of the law. Following that a nominal commission was constituted to monitor the aforesaid law. According to this law, the Monitoring Commission on Access to Information can only recommend disciplinary actions against violators of the act and no fines are specified if information is not provided. Consequently, the law should be amended to ensure the information hiders are punished and fined. Imparting a degree of independence to the newly created Commission on Access to Information can be an encouraging step ahead.

There is some underlining reservations pertaining the dispatch of certain sensitive information if shared could equally harm and reverse the developments achieved to the length of time, should be share, isn’t obligatory. Nonetheless, the information dealing issues of human rights and use and misuse of public resources should inevitably be shared renders an uncompromising and appealing demand ever made by media bodies.

The facts and figures on ground depicts a degree of restraint exercised by corresponding officials to dispatch information, complicates the work of journalists who find minimal application of the law. Earlier, officials in several provinces said they had been told by the Ministry of Interior (MoI) not to share information with media outlets. In contrary the sources of presidential palace states the Security Council should facilitate the responsible official from each province provide information to the journalists.

The state of affairs reflects a great degree of confusion on working mechanism of flow of information from concerned department to journalists, particularly in the provinces. However, it clearly manifests the toughened course to seek relevant information about governmental affairs. It is therefore; previously some civil society organizations and media-men demanded the president to help amend the relevant law to make access easy to information.

Hence it is suggested that a new draft should be introduced containing a degree of clarification on information flow mechanism, legal actions whether information aren’t deliberately concealed and the regulatory principles barring the sensationalism and unfound accusation against any citizen or official. The new draft must contain the formation of an independent and neutral commission to be assigned the task of investigating complaints, lodged against any public official. Moreover, the complaints investigation mechanism should be fair and transparent; to make it sure the complaints are heard and addressed properly devoid of keeping political, social and economical status of person in regard engage in the plot. Even the US forces who conducted ill-informed aerial raids leading to loss of employees of MSF should be brought to justice.

To bare such incidences from recurrence a precise, coordinated and information worth sharing is shared with the media. It is only we can get a well informed citizens that narrows down the gap between government and masses –it undoubtedly serves the unbeatable foundation to real democracy. It the government finds public officials being behind such heinous plot the information should be shared.