The business for car rental companies is said to be rather slow these days as several candidates, still waiting to receive party tickets, have not begun campaigning.
“Business is not what it used to be, we are hopeful it will pick up soon,” said Anwarullah Khan, chief executive officer of International Tours, a rental car service. He said the company had rented out vehicles for election campaigns in the last two elections. They had 20 cars parked in a fleet and had over a hundred vehicles that could be made available, Khan said.
CEO of Shahroz Tours, a rent-a-car company, Bahadur Khan, said several candidates who were sure that they would get a party ticket, had begun campaigning. The company had rented out as many as 50 cars to politicians in Sargodha, Mirpur, Narowal and Arif Wala, he said.
Cars that are rented out the most for campaigns include Toyota Corollas, Vigos (Hilux), Prados and Land Cruisers. These cars will remain rented out till when the elections are over. They are used to project an image of political muscle and to facilitate and impress voters, Bahadur Khan said.
He said most firms had doubled their rates due to the increase in demand.
Anwarullah Khan was of the opinion that several candidates from the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, whose names were finalised on Monday, would rent the most cars as many of its candidates were contesting elections for the first time. He said most candidates from the Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz were affluent and owned many big cars.
Senior manager of Bilal Travels, Syed Tassawar Hussain, did not agree with Khan. He said most PTI candidates were not novices. Candidates of the PML-N would rent more cars because the party spent a lot on its campaigns and had rented hundreds of cars in all the previous elections.
Hussain said his company had rented out 10 cars. The only political party that spends more on renting cars for rallies than PML-N is Pakistan Muslim League- Quaid, he said. Several candidates of PML-Q had rented hundreds of cars for each rally and paid sacks full of money for them in the previous elections, he said. A PML-N candidate from Sargodha had rented six cars, two cars had been rented out by PTI candidates and two by a candidate of PML-N from Hasilpur, Hussain said.
PML-Q Public Relations Officer Chaudhry Iqbal said every political party rented cars for campaigns including the PML-Q. In the previous election, the opposing candidate from Gujrat had rented dozens of cars and hired hundreds of gunmen to pressurise the PML-Q. Therefore their candidate had rented 50 cars, he said. They would not hire many cars for campaigns in this election and had reduced spending in accordance with the election commission’s rules, said Iqbal.
PTI Information Secretary Shireen Mazari said the party had brought in new faces who would engage the voter in door-to-door campaigns instead of renting flashy cars.
Anwarullah Khan said campaigns in the previous elections had started at least three months ahead of the polling date. He said because of the ongoing process of scrutiny and obtaining party tickets, the elections might just be delayed. “The polling date is less than a month away and campaigning has not begun,” he said. Khan said he had asked his clients to send in their cars for rent from as far as Peshawar and was waiting for candidates to rent them out. “How will candidates persuade at least 50,000 people in their constituencies to vote for them in less than a month?” he said.
Bahadur Khan said usually candidates spent millions of rupees on renting cars during election season. Most candidates would take a Prado and two or three Hilux cars to a rally. The more affluent ones would take up to seven cars to a rally, he said.
“The election commission’s rules limiting spending in a campaign is always violated in renting cars,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 17th, 2013.