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Who won in Pak? The Rs 200 bn question
20 Feb 2008, 0008 hrs IST,Shobhan Saxena,TNN
ISLAMABAD: Ordinary Pakistanis may be feeling the heat of double-digit inflation, but for candidates for the ninth general elections, cash flow was not a problem.
Flying across the country in private jets and choppers and moving in bullet-proof four wheelers surrounded by heavily-armed private security guards, the Pakistani political class spent more than Rs 200 billion ($1 equals roughly Rs 60 in Pakistan; unlike in India that uses lakhs and crores, Pakistanis use millions and billions) on the polls. This also included the money spent on glitzy print ads, posters, and TV spots.
Rs 200 billion is a huge figure in a country where inflation has been on the rise. But the candidates not only managed to raise this much amount, making it the most expensive election ever in the history of the country, but also managed pretty well to conceal the source of this money as most payments to printers, artists and hired workers were made in cash.
Money-related activities in these elections have been largely undocumented, said a senior banker, hinting that most of the cash has flowed from the coffers of industrialists, stock brokers and real estate businessmen.
Because of this flow of money, according to a survey by a group of journalists here, while the total amount spent by all the National Assembly candidates stands at Rs 53,000 million, the candidates for the four provincial assembly seats would have spent something close to Rs 46,000 million on the election campaign-related affairs.
Though almost all political parties talk party funds for money matters, bank officials here say that no political party has opened any such account.
The accounts are not opened for an obvious reason. Since the majority of financial transactions are in cash, with the parties as well as individual candidates finding sponsors for their campaigns, there is no question of routing this flow of money through banks, says a member of a political party, adding that it's difficult to know who is giving money to whom.
But, the donors don't give the money blindly. While some donate money to the people they know, others prefer to take calculated risk by donating money to people across the political spectrum. In this kind of volatile situation, you never know who is going to win. So it's better to pay more than one party or one candidate in a constituency, says an official, adding that the banks are not vigilant enough to check money laundering.
Political observers here see such funding as root cause of corruption because the people who invest in the political process are in a hurry to recover their money. In a country haunted by corruption, expenditure of Rs 200 billion from undocumented sources is not a good sign.
Who won in Pak? The Rs 200 bn question-Pakistan-World-The Times of India
20 Feb 2008, 0008 hrs IST,Shobhan Saxena,TNN
ISLAMABAD: Ordinary Pakistanis may be feeling the heat of double-digit inflation, but for candidates for the ninth general elections, cash flow was not a problem.
Flying across the country in private jets and choppers and moving in bullet-proof four wheelers surrounded by heavily-armed private security guards, the Pakistani political class spent more than Rs 200 billion ($1 equals roughly Rs 60 in Pakistan; unlike in India that uses lakhs and crores, Pakistanis use millions and billions) on the polls. This also included the money spent on glitzy print ads, posters, and TV spots.
Rs 200 billion is a huge figure in a country where inflation has been on the rise. But the candidates not only managed to raise this much amount, making it the most expensive election ever in the history of the country, but also managed pretty well to conceal the source of this money as most payments to printers, artists and hired workers were made in cash.
Money-related activities in these elections have been largely undocumented, said a senior banker, hinting that most of the cash has flowed from the coffers of industrialists, stock brokers and real estate businessmen.
Because of this flow of money, according to a survey by a group of journalists here, while the total amount spent by all the National Assembly candidates stands at Rs 53,000 million, the candidates for the four provincial assembly seats would have spent something close to Rs 46,000 million on the election campaign-related affairs.
Though almost all political parties talk party funds for money matters, bank officials here say that no political party has opened any such account.
The accounts are not opened for an obvious reason. Since the majority of financial transactions are in cash, with the parties as well as individual candidates finding sponsors for their campaigns, there is no question of routing this flow of money through banks, says a member of a political party, adding that it's difficult to know who is giving money to whom.
But, the donors don't give the money blindly. While some donate money to the people they know, others prefer to take calculated risk by donating money to people across the political spectrum. In this kind of volatile situation, you never know who is going to win. So it's better to pay more than one party or one candidate in a constituency, says an official, adding that the banks are not vigilant enough to check money laundering.
Political observers here see such funding as root cause of corruption because the people who invest in the political process are in a hurry to recover their money. In a country haunted by corruption, expenditure of Rs 200 billion from undocumented sources is not a good sign.
Who won in Pak? The Rs 200 bn question-Pakistan-World-The Times of India
"$1 equals roughly Rs 60 in Pakistan; unlike in India that uses lakhs and crores, Pakistanis use millions and billions"
