Only Rs12 million allocated to secret fund: Kaira
September 10, 2012
Talking to media here, he termed all the figures quoted by some sections of press as inflated exaggerations.
“Ministry’s total budget is only Rs5.85 billion and the secret fund gets only Rs12 million of it,” said Kaira.
Kaira clarified that Rs100 million were reserved for special publicity while a small amount of Rs12 million was kept under the head of secret fund.
“As far as allegations of bribing journalists are concerned, the ministry only extends monetary assistance to the deserving journalists, their widows, and families who are in need of it,” Kaira added.
He added that those who have misled the court with exaggerated figures on top of alleging the secret fund was used to buy journalists should be brought to book.
He said the secret fund’s allocations were preset and secretary information was accountable for every penny spent.
“I find raising fingers at the very existence of ministry of information highly astonishing. Such motions do not make sense”, the minister added.
To a question Kaira said Transparency International report in this regard was rubbish.
“The secret fund issue was only being politicized in an organized manner.”
He dared the disputants to make the secret recordings public.
“The ones who claim to have those secret recordings must also reveal which agency’s payroll are they on”.
Condemning the whole secret fund scandal, the minister urged the courts to order action against the controversy-mongers.
APP adds:
Giving a breakup of the total budget of the ministry he said Rs3.4 billion was allocated for Radio Pakistan as it was not an earning organization.
Rs250 million was earmarked for Pakistan Television to install and run boosters in the remote areas of the country, he added.
"We have a number of organizations, including Directorate of Film and Publications (DFP), Press Council of Pakistan (PCP) and Press Information Department (PID) while Rs530 million are allocated
for press attaches abroad," Kaira said.
This amount is meant for the treatment of the ailing journalists, their family members and marriage of journalists' daughters.
However, the minister said he will not disclose the names of journalists being provided financial assistance by the ministry.
He said that newspersons of various cities and countries were invited to visit Pakistan and they were looked after from this budgetary allocation.
The minister said that press clubs located in various parts of the country were also supported from this fund.
He, however, said that allegations of secret fund of Rs4 billion or more were totally false, fabricated and baseless.
