LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) has been requested to ensure complete disclosure of billions of rupees allegedly spent from the public exchequer on government advertisements, publicity campaigns.

A civil miscellaneous application has been filed in a pending writ petition by PTI leader Aliya Hamza through her counsel Azhar Siddique, seeking to bring on record subsequent developments, reminder notices and additional documents about alleged use of public funds for publicity.

The application raises questions regarding transparency, accountability and the constitutional obligation of the government to ensure lawful utilisation of taxpayers’ money. It refers to official information presented before the National Assembly, according to which around Rs14.8bn were released to print, electronic and digital media outlets in fiscal year 2022-23. The application states that more than Rs9.2bn were spent on government advertisements and publicity between July 2024 and March 2026.

It argues that despite spending such a large amount, the authorities had allegedly failed to provide complete details regarding beneficiaries, criteria for allocation, campaign-wise expenditure and recipient-wise payments.

Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2026