Construction of flyovers featuring caretaker CM: LHC summons record of expenses for ad drive

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Monday summoned a complete record of the expenses incurred for an advertisement campaign of the construction of flyovers featuring the caretaker chief minister.

The court also directed the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) to present a complete record of the construction of the flyovers by the next hearing.

The court expressed concern over the spending from the public exchequer on advertisement campaigns of development projects featuring the image of Caretaker Chief Minister.

The court observed that the money collected as taxes from the public should not be misused.

The court passed this order in a petition of a citizen, Hafiz Israrul Haq, challenging the actions taken to promote the caretaker chief minister on the construction of flyovers in the city.

The court observed that those who promoted themselves with the public money would be held accountable.

It is to mention that the former chief justice Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar in 2018 had taken a suo motu notice against the media advertisements of the provincial government showing pictures of then chief minister Shehbaz Sharif ahead of the general elections in the country.

Later, the provincial information secretary had told the court that then chief minister Shehbaz volunteered to pay Rs5.5 million from his pocket, earlier paid to television channels for broadcasting of the advertisement.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023