Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Taking suo motu notice of release of government advertisements to media houses at the public expense, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar on Wednesday questioned whether spending money of the taxpayers on self-promotion was not a pre-poll rigging.

“Such campaigns fall under the purview of pre-poll rigging in light of the upcoming general elections,” the CJP observed, suggesting that party funds and not the national exchequer be used for such campaigns.

The CJP said money of the taxpayers was being used for self-projection by the provincial governments of Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab by awarding huge advertisement campaigns to the media houses. “Doesn’t this equate to pre-poll rigging?” he asked.

He said the provincial governments were massively spending money on advertisements despite there was acute scarcity of water in the state-run schools and even life-saving drugs were not available in the public sector hospitals. He said potable water was not available in over 4,500 schools in Sindh.

The CJP said the provincial governments were running advertisements in the media with large logos and pictures to promote their projects. “They need to promote their work at their own expense,” he said.

The CJP also constituted a three-member bench to be headed by him and fixed the matter for regular hearing on March 12.

He directed the information secretaries of the three provincial governments to submit record of the advertisements awarded to print and electronic media within a week. He also directed them to provide details of how many advertisements were provided to each media house.

Published in Daily Times, March 1^st 2018.