PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has issued notice to provincial finance secretary seeking his response to a contempt plea filed by Council of Newspapers Editors (CPNE), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, against non-clearance of outstanding dues by the government on account of advertisements despite giving assurance to the court in 2024.

A single-member bench of Justice Ijaz Anwar observed that as the matter pertained to a substantial amount of money to be paid to the petitioner, therefore, notice was issued to the respondent (finance secretary) for a date to be fixed later.

The contempt plea was filed by the CPNE through its KP Chairman Tahir Farooq.

The petitioner, represented by Advocate Shahid Naseem Chamkani and Mohammad Ihsan Mehsud, stated that it had filed a petition in 2023 wherein the high court was requested to declare illegal the non-payment of the outstanding advertisement bills of around Rs1.8 billion for past several decades by the government.

A two-member bench of Justice Sahibzada Asadullah and Justice Wiqar Ahmad had disposed of that petition on May 22, 2024, when the then secretary information Syed Abdul Jabbar Khan and additional secretary Abdul Haleem Khan had informed it that reconciliation was in process and they were going to calculate the outstanding amount.

When the instant contempt petition was filed, a deputy director (litigation) of the information department on Nov 10, 2025, sought time for resolving the issue.

The petitioner counsel stated that the issue continued to linger on despite giving assurance to the court time and again.

The petitioner said the government had been delaying the release of requisite amount to the information department for onward payment to members of the petition organisation.

Published in Dawn, January 21st, 2026