KARACHI: Some advertisements had been given to so-called dummy publications having “less circulation” in the past, Sindh Information Minister Nasir Shah has said.

He was responding to legislators’ queries during Question Hour that pertained to the information department in Sindh Assembly’s Thursday session that was chaired by Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani.

Responding to a question asked by Muttahida Qaumi Movement legislator Qamar Rizvi regarding advertisements given to “ghost” and so-called dummy publications, the minister did not agree with the term “ghost” but conceded that in the past some advertisements were given to little-known newspapers which might have had very limited circulation.

Responding to a question raised by MQM legislator Kamran Akhtar as to what was the criteria to give advertisements, the minister said advertisements were given only to those newspapers that were on the information department’s ‘Media List’ and which also provided Audit Bureau of Circulation certificate.

Responding to another of his questions, Mr Shah added that all rules were being followed in giving ads.

Replying to another of his questions that if the list of newspapers names provided to the assembly today also included the names of those newspapers to which Sharjeel Memon had given advertisements for which he was being tried, Mr Shah said that no such newspaper was included in this list.

Responding to a question asked by the legislator regarding money spent on advertisements in 2016/17, the minister gave a list of 191 newspapers to which advertisements worth over Rs147.7 million were given during that time.

The largest amount that year was given to ‘Kawish’ which was given advertisements of over Rs4.7m.

Names of some other newspapers, according to the list, that were given over Rs1m worth of advertisements included: Aas (Rs2.9m); Aftab (Rs2.5m); Aghaz (Rs2.9m); Amn (Rs1.5m); Awami Awaz (Rs1.6m); Awami Mahaz (Rs2.4m); Baikas (Rs1.2m); Bakhabar (Rs1.3m); Barkha (Rs1.3m); Business Recorder (Rs2.9m); City News (Rs1.7m); Dawn (Rs4.1m); Dunya (Rs1.8m); Express (Rs3.3m); Express Tribune (Rs1.1m); Fast Times (Rs3.4m); Halchal (Rs1.7m); Ibrat (Rs2.6m); Imkan (Rs1m); Intikhab (Rs1.5m); Jang (Rs3.9m); Jeejal (Rs2.4m); Jiddat (Rs1.4m); Kaleem (Rs1m); Mid Break (Rs3.4m); Millan (Rs2.1m); Millat Gujrati (Rs1.5m); Nawa-i-Sindh (Rs1.4m); Pak (Rs2m); Pak Sindh (Rs2.1m); Preh (Rs1.3m); Qaumi Akhbar (Rs1.9m); Sach (Rs1.3m); Sadd (Rs1.3m); Shakti (Rs1.1m); Sindh Sujag (Rs2.1m); Sobh (Rs4.3m); Tameer-i-Sindh (Rs3.4m); The News (Rs3.5m); The News Lark (Rs1.7m); Daily Times (Rs1.4m); Ummat (Rs3m); Waij (Rs1m); Waka (Rs1.2m); Wisdom (Rs1.7m), etc.

Vigilance committee

Responding to a question raised by Pakistan Muslim League-Functional legislator Nusrat Abbasi that what steps had been taken so that in future advertisements were not given to “ghost” newspapers, the minister said that now a vigilance committee was set up in the Sindh information department to carry out a province-wide survey to find out which newspapers and how many of their copies were available at news stalls.

All the “little-known” newspapers would be flushed out after the survey, he added.

Responding to a question raised by Ms Abbasi regarding the number of acres allotted to ‘Media City’, the minister said that matter pertained to the Board of Revenue and not the information department.

Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2018