Imran welcomes SC probe into government advertisements

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan welcomed on Tuesday the Supreme Court's probe into the personal glorification of political leaders in government advertisements.

In a tweet, the PTI chief said: "We welcome the CJ probe into adverts where SS was told to return the taxpayers' money he spent on personal publicity. Nowhere in the world is taxpayer money used so shamelessly for personal publicity as in Pakistan. No wonder people are reluctant to pay their taxes."

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.

Hearing the case on Monday (yesterday), 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.

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The court also 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.

Hearing a similar case of the printing of Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif's pictures on laptops distributed under the provincial government's scheme on March 10, the chief justice 

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ordered the Punjab chief secretary to submit a detailed report on the chief minister's use of taxpayers' money for self-publicity.

"Why is the Punjab CM's picture being printed on laptops purchased with the taxpayers' money," commented the chief justice.