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ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has written a letter to Minister of State for Information Marriyum Aurangzeb, criticising the use of the taxpayers’ money for the projection of the Sharif family in advertising campaigns.
The letter, written by PTI leader Andleeb Abbas, alleges that the information ministry had been spending a huge amount for advertising and publicity of the PML-N government and the Sharif family in violation of court orders.
She also alleged that since 2013 the PML-N government had spent Rs11.76 billion on its promotion. Each advertisement carried pictures of the Sharif family’s members and ministers in contrary to a Supreme Court judgement, the letter said, adding the court order of November 2012, directed all government departments not to spend public funds on advertisements glorifying government functionaries wherein their pictures are published in print and electronic media.
She stated that the chief justice in his remarks had said: “Under no rule can the pictures of any public functionary be published at the expense of public funds.”
PML-N govt accused of spending a huge amount for its own projection
Why the violation of the Supreme Court order was being done by the ministry, she asked while terming it a contempt of court.
The letter further alleged that in an information ministry’s advertisement appeared in newspapers on Dec 25 the sketch of the Quaid-i-Azam was superimposed with the images of ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
There were allegations of corruption against Mr Sharif and that he had been disqualified by the apex court, Ms Abbas said while terming his pictures with the Quaid-i-Azam an insult to the father of the nation.
Moreover, she claimed that Pakistan Television (PTV) had been suffered a loss to the tune of Rs3bn annually since 2013 when the PML-N came to power.
Despite notices of Pemra, she said, PTV had become a mouthpiece of the Sharif family.
Ms Abbas asked: “In which capacity did the state-run television telecast the speech of Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz when they were speaking at PML-N social media convention on Dec 26, as they are not even public representatives?”
Published in Dawn, December 30th, 2017
