Daily Times

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Finance Department has been asked to immediately stop the salaries of 1,109 Social Media Influencers (SMIs) recruited by the PTI government for its publicity at the expense of the public exchequer.

The KP Information and Public Relations Department has asked the Secretary Finance Department to immediately stop the salaries of 1,109 SMIs recruited by the PTI government, says a notification of the KP Information Department here.

The notification stated that after the dissolution of the KP assembly and setup of interim government in the province, whose constitutional responsibility is to hold free, fair and impartial election, the subject project titled ‘Establishment of Social Media Participatory Platforms for Public Awareness & Feedback Regarding Reforms Initiatives and Encouraging Civil Responsibility” has lost its relevance.

The Information Department has stopped the Social Media project started by the previous PTI government for its publicity.

In the same project, about 1,300 social media activists were hired and they were tasked to spread the PTI narrative on social media and were paid on monthly basis. The notification stated that the election commission has banned new projects and recruitment etc, therefore, the interim government is not mandated by law, rules and regulations to carry out the project objectives and thus the continuation of the project is a waste of resources of the public exchequer. Therefore, all the objectives of the project are closed and requested that all the expenditures including salaries of the Project Management Unit (PMU), and stipends of internees may be stopped with immediate effect in the best public interest.