Source: The News
By Adnan Adil

The landscape on the Mall Road and Gulberg’s Main Boulevard in Lahore is dotted with banners displaying bicycle, the election symbol of PML-Q. The prime advertisement site is believed to have been devoted to party’s publicity campaign for gratis, which otherwise is sold off by the city authorities for millions of rupees. This is one prominent example of how the king’s party is receiving official patronage in the run-up to the general elections. The list is long — from doling out of public funds to gerrymandering and the use of police to buy votes.

The worst hit by Musharraf party’s election campaign is Punjab’s public exchequer that stands bankrupted due to overspending of outgoing Chief Minister. Insiders say that in the first five months of the current fiscal year (2007-2008), former chief minister Pervaiz Elahi had released more than 100 billion out of 120 billions available for the entire year’s development projects. In a usual year, the government spends this amount of funds in 8-10 months.

In the last couple of months alone, the chief minister is believed to have re-allocated the entire development outlay and spent more than Rs four billion on the development schemes in his home district Gujrat which is also his electoral constituency, cutting down the share of some other districts. Moreover, in last three months more than Rs four billion are said to have been spent on media campaign projecting the so-called achievements of the Punjab government.

As a result of ruthless spending for the king’s party’s election support, Punjab government has gone broke. To pay the salaries to the government officials for the month of December, Punjab government borrowed money from the separate accounts of the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) and the Faisalabad Development Authority (FDA). For the payment of January salaries, the provincial government is looking towards the funds’ transfers from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) that is to be made by the 20th of this month and the federal transfers that have also been slow since April due to pervasive unrest in the country.

Still, the caretaker government is focusing all its attention to provide money to those projects at the local level that were initiated on political grounds to help the PML-Q candidates in the elections. Insiders say that former chief minister Punjab allocated more than Rs 10 million for development schemes of each union council of the Punjab on the recommendation of the party’s candidates.

To buy local luminaries’ support, the Punjab government is believed to have dished out loans on political grounds from the Punjab Provincial Cooperative Bank which is in red with Rs 7 billion outstanding due to non-payment of political loans. To meet the cooperative bank’s deficit, the provincial exchequer will have to bail it out. The former rulers of Punjab have allegedly sold out most of their industrial units and coincidentally all the parties that bought these units have received huge loans from the Bank of Punjab. Among the beneficiaries of the Punjab Bank are those who matter in Islamabad.

In the last couple of months, thousands of new government jobs and new departments (such as prosecution department) have been created to employ people on recommendations ignoring merit and to buy political support. Many of the newly employed people belongs to Gujrat district. These officials would also work as election staff to conduct the polling.

The caretaker chief minister is believed to be a close friend of the rulers from Gujrat. The caretaker administration has not transferred any secretary of the provincial government or the staff members of the chief minister secretariat or any district police officer (DPO) or district coordination officer (DCO). It is alleged that some police officials have helped the PML-Q bigwigs to buy thousands of national identity cards in certain key constituencies to ensure the victory of the party’s candidates.

These district officials were posted keeping in view their loyalty to the rulers of Punjab and a majority of them have a reputation that leaves much to be desired. A number of DCOs are retired PCS officials who were re-employed to beef up the loyalist group. Insiders say no foreign investment project in the Punjab was allowed unless a handsome commission was received by a top civil servant supervising the provincial administration.

A troika comprising chief secretary Salman Siddique, Home Secretary Khusro Bakhtiar and Director General Intelligence Bureau (IB) Brigadier Ejaz Shah (retd) is believed to be running the show. To keep the bureaucracy in line, a strong impression has been created that Pervaiz Elahi would be the next prime minister. Official estimates say that the king’s party would bag more than 90 national seats out of 148 in the Punjab. In case, PML-N boycotts the polls the number is likely to cross 120. Conversely, a PPP-PML-N seating adjustment may upset the entire plan.

According to insiders, senior officers sitting in the Punjab Secretariat are receiving orders from the former secretary to the chief minister in the name of former CM. Sources say that secretaries and other senior officers fear in case of defiance they would have to face the negative consequences if the Chaudhrys again come into power. In fact, the way bureaucratic postings have been made, the present caretaker government could not be effective in getting its orders implemented even if by chance it starts acting neutral.

One major threat to the king’s party was from the media. The imposition of the Emergency Plus effectively gagged the vocal part of the electronic media, stopping the opposition’s point of view from reaching the masses. While the stick was employed to control the television channels and stopping the official advertisement for independent newspapers, carrot was used to buy the support of some influential opinion makers. In November, the discretionary fund of the chief minister, which runs in billions of rupees and is beyond audit, was believed to have been distributed for this purpose.

Keeping in view the fact that the entire system is loaded against the opposition parties and to ensure the victory of the PML-Q, the prospects of the opposition parties to have a level-playing field in the general elections seem remote to say the least. Unless a caretaker chief minister with a new cabinet is set up and a massive reshuffle is made in the bureaucracy, the holding of fair elections is not likely.

Last but not least, the date of general elections has been announced abruptly keeping in mind the convenience of the king’s party which was using state resources for the last one year to prepare for this and opposition parties have very little time to mobilise their support and run the election campaign. A neutral caretaker administration and postponement of elections for a couple of months could ensure a level-playing field for the opposition and break the stranglehold of the Chaudhrys on Punjab.

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Tags: Campaign, Chief Minister, Development, Elections, Musharraf, Pervaiz Elahi, PML (Q), Punjab