The government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa spent 240 million rupees on advertisements from December 1, 2018 to February 28, 2018. Photo: File

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ISLAMABAD: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) officials were not found guilty of misappropriating tax money on self-glorification, it surfaced on Tuesday. 

On February 28, the chief justice had taken a suo motu notice of the ongoing publicity campaigns by the provinces of Punjab, Sindh, and KP.

Hearing the case on Monday (yesterday), the chief justice had inquired how many advertisements did the KP government print and broadcast with pictures of the KP chief minister and party chief Imran Khan.

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Responding to the query, the information secretary of KP informed the court that he had been unable to find pictures of both Imran and Khattak in the advertisements published by the provincial government from December 1, 2017 till February 28, 2018. 

In response to a question on why the KP government had spent 240 million rupees on advertisements, the information secretary responded that the advertisements were for public awareness and feedback.

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The additional advocate general of Punjab also submitted a report to the apex court. He responded in affirmative to the CJP's question about the pictures of political leaders placed in advertisements of the Punjab government.  

"Who will pay for the personal glorification of leaders?" Justice Nisar said, inquiring if a prior payment of 5.5 million rupees had been submitted. 

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Party leaders must return the money for the advertisements with their photos in them, the CJP ordered, adding that the Supreme Court does not want the pictures of political leaders to be placed in government's advertisements. 

Justice Nisar then said that the case will be resolved within a day or two.

During a previous hearing of the case, the CJP had expressed his annoyance at political parties utilising public money for their publicity campaigns.