Will not allow government advertisements with pictures of politicians: CJP

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Saqib Nisar observed on Monday that the Supreme Court is putting an end to a specific category of government advertisements.

The court observed that advertisements with political pictures will be banned.

Hearing the suo motu notice of political advertisements on taxpayers’ expense, the chief justice inquired how many advertisements did the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government print and broadcast with pictures of the KP chief minister and party chief Imran Khan.

The KP information secretary informed the court that there is no government policy regarding the printing of the chief minister or party chief’s pictures.

CJP takes suo motu notice of provincial governments' publicity campaigns

Chief Justice Saqib Nisar summons report on advertising campaigns from Sindh, Punjab and KP

Responding to the court’s query, the information secretary revealed that the provincial government spent a little over Rs204 million on advertisements in the last three months. He added that the provincial government, since coming into power, has spend Rs1.63 billion on advertisements.

The court then summoned the provincial government’s one year record of advertisements to ascertain if pictures of political leaders were published on government ads.

Chief Justice Nisar remarked that the funds spent on these advertisements are the public’s money. 

On Feb 28, the chief justice had taken suo motu notice of the ongoing publicity campaigns by the provinces of Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.