ISLAMABAD: The chief justice of Pakistan has mentioned that the Geo TV wasreceiving more advertisements because it favoured the government.

The Supreme Court was informed on Wednesday that a total of 206advertisements worth Rs1,076 million — Rs890m to print and Rs186m toelectronic media — were issued by the federal government from Dec 1, 2017to Feb 28, 2018.

Out of the 200 advertisements issued to the print media only nine containedpictures of political leaders and 191 were without any pictures, arguedAdditional Attorney General (AAG) Nayyar Rizvi before a three-judge SupremeCourt bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar hearing a suo motu caselink>relating to the advertisements issued bythe federal and provincial governments.

The chief justice clarified during the proceedings that the main purposebehind taking the suo motu notice was to prevent campaigns ofself-projection or self-aggrandisement by the politicians who intended tocontest the upcoming general election.

The chief justice admitted that it was not the job of the court tointervene who decides and which organisation receives advertisements.

Information Secretary Ahmad Nawaz Sukhera, however, informed the court thatthe payment to the media was not made by the government but byadvertisement agencies, adding that the Press Information Department (PID)processed the advertisements.