ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday constituted a four-member committee that would submit its report in connection with the procedure of payments to media organisations against government advertisements circulated during the current tenure.
Members of the committee include Principal Information Officer Muhammad Saleem, Council of Pakistan Newspapers Editors (CPNE) Secretary Ijazul Haq, All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) Secretary Sarmad Ali and Advertising Association President Jawad Humayun. Among other members would be provincial information secretaries, who would deal with matters pertaining to provincial advertisements.
A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar, was hearing the print media advertisements case.
The CJP, at the occasion, directed the government to clear the dues within a week and ordered advertising agencies to subsequently pay print media organisations within three days.
During the course of proceedings, the chief justice questioned why weren’t advertising agencies paying print media organisations. Replying to the top judge’s query, the advertising agencies’ counsel told the CJP that the government wasn’t clearing its dues and so the agencies were unable to pay the organisations.
Upon this, Federal Information Secretary Ahmad Nawaz Sukhera said that the government had sent the summary of arrears (till that of February 28) to the prime minister and it would be approved by Tuesday (today).
He said that no previous arrears during the five-year tenure of the government were there, to which the CJP remarked that the government should clear the remaining dues of its tenure at the earliest.
The information secretary said that the arrears would be cleared within the ongoing week and an amount of Rs401 million would be paid to the print media outlets.
The CJP then constituted the four-member committee and directed it to determine the method of payment. He also instructed the committee to perform its duties with honesty and submit its report to the court at the earliest.