ISLAMABAD: Ministry of Information, Broadcasting, National History, Literary Heritage and attached departments had given advertisements worth Rs 6,111,779,669 to print and electronic media in last four years, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry told Senate on Wednesday.
In a written reply to the question of Senator Muhammad Azam Khan Swati, he said the advertisements worth Rs 426,912,654 had been given to print and electronic media in 2013-14.
A media cell under the supervision of Maryam Nawaz was operating from PM House controlling allocation of government advertisements beyond the jurisdiction of Ministry of Information.
Federal Information Minister @fawadchaudhry informs the Senate. pic.twitter.com/Rp5x8VpKOr— PTI (@PTIofficial) August 29, 2018
Rs 1,095,794,707 billion had been given to both print and electronic media during 2014-15, advertisements worth Rs 2,469,226,193 in 2015-16 and Rs 2,119,846,115 in 2016-17.
The minister stated that a media cell under the supervision of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Maryam Nawaz was operating from PM House to control the allocation of government advertisements beyond the jurisdiction of Ministry of Information.
“The previous federal government increased its spending for the production of advertisements from Rs 42.6 crores in 2013-14 to Rs 2.1 billion in 2016-17 and a total of Rs 6.1 billion was spent in these 4 years,” the minister observed.
He said the advertising agencies were assigned media campaigns considering their creative/productive capabilities and skills.
The advertising agencies were appointed on the panel of Ministry of Information, Broadcasting, National History & Literary Heritage through an open and transparent competition process, the reply added, informing that all enlisted agencies were invited to participate in the competition process as per Press Information Department (PID) guidelines for appointment of advertising agencies.
