June 16, 2025
By Rehan Piracha
LAHORE
The Punjab Assembly on Monday, June 16, passed the controversial Punjab Awareness and Dissemination of Information Bill 2025, rejecting opposition amendments by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) that sought to delay the legislation for broader public consultation until August.
Ahead of the budget session, Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari moved the bill for consideration on the floor. The opposition PTI had proposed three amendments to the legislation.
Opposition concerns
Speaking on his proposed amendment, PTI MPA Ahmed Khan argued that consideration of the bill should be postponed until August 6 to allow for public consultation. He claimed the bill’s purpose was to prevent people and journalists from questioning the provincial government’s substantial expenditure on advertisements that project personal images of government leaders.
Khan objected to the bill’s retroactive effect from January 2025, arguing that the obvious beneficiary was the government in power. He noted that his party had issued a white paper on massive advertisement spending over the past year and a half, adding that the legislation would effectively provide cover for the government’s unrestricted spending on media advertisements.
The opposition’s second amendment to refer the bill to a select committee was also rejected.
PTI MPA Sheikh Imtiaz Mehmood criticised the Maryam Nawaz government for spending substantial public funds on personal publicity. He questioned how the provincial government could legislate on a matter when the Supreme Court had ruled that government leaders cannot spend public funds on personal publicity. He noted that the Punjab government had placed 60-page advertisement supplements for personal publicity with complete disregard for accountability.
“Who does the provincial government want to protect by having the legislation retroactively implemented from January 2024 when it was not yet in power, and by making the bill part of a money bill?” he asked.
Government defence
Defending the legislation, Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari argued that the provincial assembly had the right to make laws. She noted that the Supreme Court ruling on government advertisements came when there was no law regarding the matter, adding that the new legislation would take precedence over the Supreme Court ruling. In 2018, the Supreme Court had barred pictures of politicians featuring in government advertisements.
“There is a difference between personal publicity and political publicity,” Bokhari explained. “A government leader’s picture with pet dogs would be considered personal publicity, but advertisements for free medicines or free hepatitis treatment cannot be considered personal publicity.”
The information minister argued that the Punjab Chief Minister’s affordable housing and garbage collection projects were not personal publicity campaigns as claimed by the opposition. “All these public welfare projects were conceived and implemented by Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, and now the whole world acknowledges this accomplishment,” she responded to the criticism.
She added that mass awareness of such initiatives was in the public interest, unlike the opposition’s work, which she claimed was against public interest.
Regarding the opposition’s criticism about ending judicial oversight in the bill, Bokhari said the government could have chosen not to provide any appellate forums if it wanted to be authoritarian or hide something. She explained that these forums were included so that anyone with concerns about advertisement content or publicity campaigns could approach authorities for rectification within the timeframe specified in the bill.
Final debate and passage
Speaking on a third amendment, PTI MPA Qazi Ahmed Akbar said the opposition was not against publicity campaigns for welfare projects but opposed having pictures of CM Maryam Nawaz in advertisements paid for with public money. “These are public funds, and nobody should be allowed to use them for personal publicity,” he said.
He argued that the legislation was being rushed through to ward off legal challenges mounted by PTI, which had filed petitions against the Punjab government’s excessive spending on the CM’s personal publicity using public funds.
As the session time was ending, Speaker Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan hurriedly proceeded with clause-by-clause voting amid opposition uproar. The bill was passed, and the speaker adjourned the session for the budget speech at 2 PM.
Bill’s stated purpose vs criticism
According to the provincial government, the bill provides a comprehensive framework for government advertisements and communications aimed at informing and raising awareness about initiatives of public importance.
However, Punjab PTI claims the bill aims to block inquiries into government-funded advertisements, arguing that under the proposed law, the information secretary’s decisions on promotional campaigns paid for with public money would be final and immune from judicial review, even by the Supreme Court.
Broader concerns
Journalist Benazir Shah expressed concern about the proposed legislation on the day it was tabled in the provincial assembly on June 12. In her social media thread, she pointed out that the bill also retroactively validates all publicity campaigns run by the Punjab government since January 2024.
“This comes as the Supreme Court and the Lahore High Court are hearing several cases against the CM Punjab for allegedly using public funds for personal publicity,” Shah wrote on platform X.
Shah noted that Geo Fact Check filed a right-to-information request in May asking how much was spent on advertisements between February 26, 2024, and May 10, 2025, but received no reply. On May 30, Geo Fact Check filed a formal complaint with the Pakistan Information Commission over the Punjab government’s refusal to provide this public interest information.
According to Shah, the bill, once passed, could block any challenge to these advertisement expenses (past, present, or future) from being heard in court or disclosed through RTI requests.
Political opposition
In a statement on June 15, Punjab PTI chief organizer Aliya Hamza Malik alleged that corruption was already widespread in Punjab, and the government was now trying to provide legal cover through this bill. She said the legislation’s motive was clear: the rulers wanted to protect their vested interests and facilitate political self-promotion.