Daily Times

KARACHI: Since the establishment of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and the Prime Minister of Pakistan Diamer-Bhasha and Mohmand Dams Fund, donations from overseas Pakistanis remain paltry as expats have donated a meagre amount of Rs 877.6 million so far.

On the directives of the SC, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) opened an account on July 10, 2018 for collection of donations for the construction of Diamer-Bhasha and Mohmand dams.

According to the status of SBP’s receipt as of November 19, 2018, a sum of Rs 7.895 billion have been contributed as donation to the Supreme Court of Pakistan and Prime Minister of Pakistan’s Diamer Bhasha and Mohmand Dam.

Out of Rs 7.895 billion, Rs 7.018 billion has been contributed to dam fund domestically while overseas Pakistanis have so far donated only Rs 877.6 million.

Prime Minister Imran Khan had said that a target of Rs 30 billion was needed every year for the Diamer-Bhasha and Mohmand dams fund. “If every overseas Pakistani donates $1,000, we will have enough to build the dams ourselves,” the PM had earlier said.

Apparently, it seems the overseas Pakistanis are not paying much attention to the PM’s fundraising appeal as the donations to the dam fund from abroad remained well below expectations.

Commenting on the possible reasons of meagre donations from overseas Pakistanis, senior economy journalist Khurram Husain said, “Overseas Pakistanis are showing lack of interest as they can see that this is not the way to finance infrastructure. Donations to a dam fund cannot be classified as tax deductible… so no benefit to them for doing so.”

Hussain was of the view that weak fund raising push by the PM could be another possible reason as he (PM) used to go regularly to overseas Pakistanis on fund raising appeals for Shaukat Khanum, but for the dam fund he had given only one televised appeal.

On the other hand, Arif Habib Group Director Ahsan Mehanti said, “We have witnessed many unexpected protests; we expect strong inflows once we are done with IMF economic relief package and other international donations”.

Pakistanis living in US, UK and Canada, however, responded well to the PM’s appeal and made some noticeable contributions to the dam fund.

Pakistanis in US have donated Rs 333.4 million, while expatriates in UK have sent Rs 180.01 million so far. Similarly, Canadian-based Pakistanis have contributed Rs 101.4 million.

Interestingly, someone from Pakistan’s neighbouring country India has also showed his love for PM Imran khan by donating Rs 36,199 to the dam fund.

Pakistanis living in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have contributed Rs 50.5 million and Pakistanis from Saudi Arabia have contributed Rs 25.9 million.

It is to be noted that most of the domestic contribution in the dam fund came as deduction from salaries of government and private institutions workers.

Published in Daily Times, November 21^st 2018.