Sir: In Pakistan, most arguments or conflicts can be judged according to one overarching concept — the defence of the nation. Police won’t lodge an FIR for you? You might be threatening the delicate defence system of the country. No water in your taps? It might be serving the higher purpose of defending the nation instead. Sometimes, the connections between seemingly unrelated actions can be explained and at other times it does not make sense by any stretch of the imagination. Earlier in the year, Shehri-CBE wrote to the Cantonment Executive Officer of the Karachi Cantonment Board (KCB) enquiring under the Federal Freedom of Information Ordinance 2002 about the notified rates and areas for KCB charged parking, a copy of their rules governing charged parking and relevant person dealing with charged parking. Receiving no response within the requisite 21 days, Shehri lodged a complaint to the relevant ombudsman for non-provision of information by the Cantonment Executive Officer, and then we waited patiently. We received the reply and were not a bit surprised by it. We were told that the Federal Ombudsman could not take cognizance of our complaint as the matter was related to the defence of Pakistan. And that was that. Can you see the correlation between charged parking and the defence of Pakistan? We cannot. In this case, the failure is not limited to the application of the FOI laws or the fact that the Ombudsman took no cognizance of the complaint. It is a failure of the entire system, the so-called check and balance mechanisms provided by the law seem to be a sham. Public organisations do not care to follow the rules and when they are questioned, everything can be dismissed with a wave of ‘Defence of Pakistan’, “sorry cannot tell”. SHEHRI Karachi