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SC freezes Information Ministry’s secret fund
QUETTA: The Supreme Court has frozen the Information Ministry’s secret fund till the next hearing of the petition pertaining to the formation of a media accountability commission.
The petition was submitted in the Supreme Court by senior journalist and Geo News anchor Hamid Mir and senior journalist Absar Alam.
The case was heard by a two member bench comprising of Justice Jawaad Khawaja and Justice Khilji Arif at the Supreme Court’s Quetta Registry. As proceedings began, Justice Arif inquired if there was a clear procedure devised to provide advertisements to newspapers.
During proceedings, Hamid Mir said people in the government were aware of the secret fund and its use. He added that the PPP used to hurl accusations regarding the misuse of the secret fund in 2002 and that the fund was also mentioned in the budget.
Mir further said the Mushahid Hussain had payments made thorough a bank draft to make the secret fund transparent.
Meanwhile Justice Khawaja asked the senior journalists about the working of the Interior Ministry to which Absar Alam replied that the ministry had no specific task but was there to apply pressure on newspapers.
The hearing of the case has been adjourned till September 12.
Courtesy www.geo.tv