Last year the Pakistan Muslim League –Nawaz Government spent around Rs450 million on advertisements to counter the sit-ins of Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT). At that time media managers of the ruling party suggested to air and publish different advertisements for tackling the sit-ins. The media campaign commended the government actions and reminded public of their achievements and on the same time criticized the sit-ins.
Originally the office of the Prime minister asked finance ministry to release funds for around 62 Projects. Rupees 450 million were requested for the projects, but all the money was spent on advertisements on media. The funds which were public’s trust were spent on the private media campaign of PML-N. The public funded media campaigns like ‘riyasat par dhawa’, ‘PTV par hamla’ and ‘qaum ki awaz’ the testimonials were aired on the private TV Channels. The main reason of airing such advertisements was to stop people from participating in the sit-ins.
About Rupees 428 million were spent on the advertisements which were aired on the electronic media and Rupees 19 million was spent on print advertisements. This media campaign actually took off on 13th August before the start of the long-march. Politicians of the opposition parties condemned the usage of Public funds for selfish needs of the ruling party.