Ex-PTI govt’s scandal: 5,000 social media influencers recruited ‘illegally’

ISLAMABAD: Another scandal of the former government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) came to the fore on Saturday when Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Caretaker Minister for Information Barrister Feroz Jamal Shah revealed that 5,000 social media influencers were recruited by the provincial government in its last days.

In a conversation with a private news channel, he said these social media influencers were getting salaries of 25 to 30 thousand rupees per month while sitting at home. He said that there was no area in the province where these influencers were not working. The KP government was giving them money and their agenda was obvious, creating and running trends in favour of the PTI, he added. The information minister said the recruitments were not done according to the procedure, nor was any advertisement issued in this regard. He revealed that 150-160 million rupees were being spent on them monthly.

The minister said he had acquired the list of all these recruits and the caretaker government had decided to send the case of these 5,000 recruits to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for investigation. He said the provincial government was facing a severe financial crisis and it could not afford spending such a huge amount on these influencers every month.