Federal Minister for Information Qamar Zaman Kaira has categorically denied the news doing rounds in various section of press regarding his ministry’s secret fund.
Talking to media here, he termed all the figures quoted by some sections of press as inflated exaggerations.
“Ministry’s total budget is only Rs5.85 billion and the secret fund gets only Rs12 million of it,” said he.
“As far as allegations of bribing the journalists are concerned, the ministry only extends monetary assistance to the deserving journalists, their widows, and families who are in need of it,” Kaira added. He added that those who have misled the court with the exaggerated figures should be brought to the book.
He said the secret fund’s allocations were preset and secretary information was accountable for every penny spent.
“I find raising fingers at the very existence of ministry of information highly astonishing. Such motions do not make sense”, the minister added. To a question Kaira said Transparency International report in this regard was rubbish. “The secret fund issue was only being politicized in an organized manner,” said he. He dared the disputants to make the secret recordings public. “The ones who claim to have those secret recordings must also reveal which agency’s payroll are they on”. Condemning the whole secret fund scandal, the minister urged the courts to order action against the controversy-mongers.
