AS long as the election campaign was in motion, television channels and newspapers hardly had any other advertisements than those of political parties. Unlike previous elections, media space hogged the limelight like it never did before; one of the major reasons being the persisting security threats.

The extensive media campaign even left multinationals giants behind in terms of advertising revenue, but also put a question mark on the role of the ECP with respect to its responsibility to monitor the campaign and keep a check on election expenses.

Major parties like the PPP, the PML-N and the PTI hired the services of the leading marketing and advertisement companies for their publicity campaigns, while smaller parties and candidates with less financial resources made do with the cable network to target their constituents.

The billions spent on the media campaign by the parties belie their claim of having limited financial standings that they make in their annual statements of assets submitted before the ECP every year.

Interestingly, when approached, almost all the parties had similar response to questions regarding the source of money being spent, with all of them claiming that most of the money had come through donations from their “well-wishers and supporters” inside and outside the country.

Moreover, some parties claimed that the money they had collected from aspiring ticket-holders as non-refundable fees with their applications was also used for the purpose.

When contacted, campaign managers of all the parties were reluctant to disclose the actual budget they were spending.

No one from the PPP, for instance, was ready to make any comment on the issue. In fact, the main office-bearers showed their ignorance as to who was basically in charge of the party’s media campaign. Most of them, however, said they believed that Political Secretary to President Asif Ali Zardari and former MNA Rukhsana Bangash was the key person.

PML-Q Information Secretary Kamil Ali Agha said that former deputy prime minister Chaudhry Pervez Ilahi was himself monitoring the publicity drive of the party. He claimed that the party did not receive donations, and the expenses were being met mostly from party funds.

Both the PML-N and the PTI accused each other of spending billions on media campaign. When a PML-N member alleged that the PTI had already spent some Rs2 billion on television advertisements, a PTI leader hit back by claiming that if this was true, “it means that the PML-N has spent Rs8 billion since the quantum of its ads was four times more than the PTI ads”.

The PTI publicity team was headed by Asad Umar, but it was Salman Danish, a member of the PTI media team, who explained that the party had signed a contract with a leading advertisement agency and was, therefore, getting special concession.

Like other parties, Mr Danish too claimed that the funds had been collected by the party through donors and the general public, besides the sum collected from aspiring candidates. He said the party had opened a special centralised bank account to receive donations from the general public.

Former Senator Tariq Azeem, a member of the PML-N’s team looking after the media campaign, claimed that his party was facing great financial difficulties in running the campaign since it was unable to match the money being spent by the rivals, particularly the PPP and the PTI.

The case of MQM and the Jamaat-e-Islami, both based in urban Sindh, was different as both claimed that it was the party which was running the campaign of even the individual candidates.

According to JI spokesman Shahid Shamsi, the party has an inbuilt mechanism under which members keep donating funds which are then utilised for various party activities, including the election campaign of the candidates, under the supervision of a finance committee comprising senior party members. The party, he said, did not even seek applications from the aspirants, and the leadership itself nominated candidates in all the constituencies.

Former deputy parliamentary leader of the MQM Haider Abbas Rizvi said party candidates were not required to spend even a single rupee in their election campaign as the funds for this purpose were provided by the party itself. According to Mr Rizvi, the candidates cannot even plan their campaign and it was the party that provided the schedule of corner meetings etc.

The PPP had formally invited applications from the aspirants for party tickets in February, asking the candidates to deposit a fee of Rs40,000 for a National Assembly seat and Rs30,000 for a provincial assembly seat.

The PML-N hopefuls had to deposit Rs50,000 for a National Assembly ticket and Rs30,000 for a provincial assembly seat.

The PTI had divided the applicants into three categories, charging Rs10,000 from applicants below the age of 35, while those over that had to deposit Rs30,000 for the NA and Rs20,000 for a provincial assembly with their applications.

The PML-N was the only party which had charged a separate fee from those seeking tickets for the reserved seats for women and minorities, collecting Rs100,000 for a reserved NA seat and Rs75,000 for a provincial assembly nomination.

Justifying the decision, PML-N Deputy Secretary-General Ahsan Iqbal had reportedly stated that his party did not collect funds or receive donations from the members on a regular basis, and the general election was the only opportunity for it to collect funds.