LAHORE Mar 8 (TNS): The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to return Rs5.5 million to the national exchequer after a newspaper advertisement on behalf of the Punjab government, carrying his picture, was shown in the court.
A three-member bench of the SC headed by the Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar issued the orders while hearing the suo motu case regarding hefty spending on advertisements by provincial government at the court’s Lahore Registry.
“How much did this advertisement cost?” the CJP asked after being shown the newspaper clipping today. Upon being informed that it cost Rs5.5 million, he remarked that the money could have been used to provide medicine to the people.
He also asked if it was a monarchy in which such a huge sum was spent on a single advertisement.
The provincial chief secretary told the court that the purpose of the advertisement in question was to show the development work completed by the government in the past five years.
When asked, the Punjab secretary information said that advertisements worth Rs120 million had been doled out by the provincial government in one-month.
“Rs120 million in one-month amounts to Rs1.5 billion worth of advertisements in a year,” Justice Nisar noted. He also inquired what was the procedure for giving advertisements to the newspapers.
The SC also ordered the Punjab government, the PML-N, the All Pakistan Newspapers Society and the Punjab chief minister to submit their replies in the case.
