April 29, 2002	Monday	Safar 15, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, April 28: A minimum amount of Rs2 billion would be incurred on conducting the one-day referendum exercise by the Election Commission in addition to the cost of organising the rallies for President Gen Pervez Musharraf, sources told Dawn here on Sunday.

When contacted for official comments, the director of the public relations, Election Commission, Ghazni Khan, said: “The expenditure for the referendum would be more than that of organising the local government polls, as additional polling stations and booths are being established.”

He said an amount of Rs1.7 billion was incurred on organising the local government polls but the expenditures for the referendum were likely to be a little more than Rs2 billion.

The Election Commission is making efforts to establish polling stations and polling booths for every 500 voters, sources said.

The EC has already set up 87,074 polling stations and 163,641 polling booths. Some 174,148 polling assistants and 414,356 polling personnel would be paid honorarium by the EC.

OPPOSITION CLAIM: The main political parties opposing the referendum claimed that the military regime had deprived the public exchequer of at least Rs5 billion in direct and indirect expenses for perpetuating the tenure of President Musharraf.

When contacted, Pakistan People’s Party spokesman Farhatullah Babar said Gen Musharraf was spending public money on personal political campaign in a referendum for which he was the only candidate for the Office of President. Use of public funds for personal political objectives, Babar added, attracted the mischief of the Accountability Law.