PoK
![A view of Muzaffarabad, the capital of PoK. Reuters/Amiruddin Mughal]( "A view of Muzaffarabad, the capital of PoK. Reuters/Amiruddin Mughal")
A view of Muzaffarabad, the capital of PoK. Reuters/Amiruddin Mughal
The Pakistani government spent billions of rupees as secret funds on projects in PoK and to pay journalists and media houses.
The money was routed through a low-key Ministry of Information Technology instead of the powerful Defence, Foreign Affairs and Interior Ministries, an auditor general report has revealed.
In a country battling widespread poverty, the ministry ate up more than 3 billion rupees since 2009 under the head of a secret fund.
But mysteriously, the fund balance fell to zero last year, said a news report published in the Dawn newspaper.
However, the ministry's secretary denied knowing about the secret fund.
Currently, a Pakistan Supreme Court bench is hearing petitions challenging the use of secret fund amid allegations that millions of rupees were given to select journalists and media organisations.
More than 27 ministries and public departments had secret funds at their disposal in Pakistan.
During Prevez Musharraf's tenure as president, more than seven billion rupees was distributed out of the the secret funds. When Pakistan People's Party came to power, the allocation was raised by one billion rupees.
Last August, an Interior Ministry report said informers were paid a total amount of 30 million rupees while in May 2011, the Foreign Office confessed to paying British Labour Party MP George Galloway 135,000 pounds to promote Pakistan's viewpoint on PoK.
The money was routed through a low-key Ministry of Information Technology instead of the powerful Defence, Foreign Affairs and Interior Ministries, an auditor general report has revealed.
In a country battling widespread poverty, the ministry ate up more than 3 billion rupees since 2009 under the head of a secret fund.
But mysteriously, the fund balance fell to zero last year, said a news report published in the Dawn newspaper.
However, the ministry's secretary denied knowing about the secret fund.
Currently, a Pakistan Supreme Court bench is hearing petitions challenging the use of secret fund amid allegations that millions of rupees were given to select journalists and media organisations.
More than 27 ministries and public departments had secret funds at their disposal in Pakistan.
During Prevez Musharraf's tenure as president, more than seven billion rupees was distributed out of the the secret funds. When Pakistan People's Party came to power, the allocation was raised by one billion rupees.
Last August, an Interior Ministry report said informers were paid a total amount of 30 million rupees while in May 2011, the Foreign Office confessed to paying British Labour Party MP George Galloway 135,000 pounds to promote Pakistan's viewpoint on PoK.