Imran Khan welcomes top court's decision to probe into KPK govt's ads

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has welcomed the Supreme Court (SC) to probe into the advertisements by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) government.

The PTI chairman took to Twitter and claimed that the KPK government has spent Rs 1.6 billion, whereas in the case of Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the provincial government has spent a huge amount with Shehbaz's face on advertisements.

PTI welcomes SC probe into KP govt adverts where the official policy is that neither the CM nor ministers allowed to put their pics on govt ads. In almost 5 yrs KP govt spent only Rs1.6 bn - miniscule compared to Punjab where S Sharif spent massively with his face on govt ads https://t.co/Yn3CzlSYb8

— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) March 13, 2018

The Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Saqib Nisar had earlier taken suo motu notice regarding provincial governments spending millions on advertisements to promote their projects. Expressing his anger at political parties over utilizing public money for their publicity campaigns, the CJP warned the government officials to mend their ways, local media reported.

During the hearing on Monday, the CJP was informed by KPK Information Secretary that the KPK has spent Rs 1.63 billion for advertisement during their five year tenure.

On the other hand, the CJP has directed Shehbaz to return the Rs 5.5 million he had spent on a newspaper advertisement bearing his picture. Justice Nisar was also annoyed at the fact that Shehbaz had printed his pictures on the laptop scheme on the expense of nation’s money.