The Attorney General (AG) for Pakistan Irfan Qadir on Thursday requested the Supreme Court (SC) to give him time for holding meetings with state functionaries being targeted in the media commission report so as to get their point of view regarding payments to certain media organisations and advertisement agencies.
Qadir made the request during hearing of identical petitions regarding issuance of funds to several media groups and advertisement agencies. The case was heard by a three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice (CJ) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Jawwad S Khawaja and Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry.
During the course of proceedings, Asad Kharal, a petitioner told the court that in three different summaries, government had ordered release of billions of rupees to different media groups.
The AG accepted that the previous government had issued such orders but assured the court that no such disbursement had been made.
The bench was informed that in the first summary a sum of Rs 950 million was to be released.
The AG stated that the said amount had been surrendered and was not released to any person.
The second summary containing an amount of Rs 1.326 billion was also issued to be disbursed on directives of the former premier on the last day of the outgoing government, March 16.
The CJ inquired how such a big amount could be released without any calculation and reasoning.
The AG maintained that he should be given time to hold meetings with all state functionaries to get their stance on the matter.
He declared that he could only give a statement after the meetings and replies from the concerned quarters.
The bench was apprised that the third summary of Rs 83.87 million was the third major amount which was to be awarded to an advertisement agency.
The bench clubbed all three summaries and directed the AG to come back with a detailed reply and adjourned the case till May 20.
