Fed, provinces assure SC to avoid personal publicity over public projects

ISLAMABAD: The federal and provincial governments have assured the Supreme Court, they will avoid personal publicity over public projects, ARY News reported on Thursday.

A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, also comprises of Justice Irfan Saadat Khan and Naeem Akhtar Afghan, heard the case.

The law officers of the federal and all four provincial governments assured the supreme court to implement the court’s year 2023 judgement, in which it had prohibited personal publicity over development projects.

The apex court summoned statements on oath from the federal as well as provincial governments.

Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) said that every province has been united over the issue of personal publicity and none of them opposes it.

The court questioned about the number of law officers in Sindh. “There are 80 law officers in Sindh,” Sindh’s lawyer told the court. “There is a battalion of 80 law officers in Sindh, while no permanent law officer has been in Islamabad,” the CJP remarked.

Provincial law officers informed the court there are 18 law officers in Balochistan, 40 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 86 in Punjab.

“The most populated province Punjab have 86 law officers while Sindh have 80 law officers,” the chief justice said.

Punjab government’s lawyer told the court that the province will bring the number of lawyers down from 86 to 66.

“Each law officer in Sindh have Rs. five lac monthly salary thus 40 million rupees being paid to law officers of Sindh from the pockets of the people of the province,” CJP said.

“The court doesn’t get better assistance from Sindh’s law officers. They appear before the court on video-link but with poor voice quality,” the top judge said.

“We don’t want to interfere in government matters but what is crime of the poor people,” he said.

“We want to see a strong and vibrant democracy”, CJP said.

“Why the practice of gaining personal publicity over public interest projects,” he asked. “Even staunch political opponents have been on the same page over personal publicity,” CJP remarked.

The bench adjourned further hearing of the case for two weeks.