Politics of massage — and money

Politicians and the massage business have always been hand in hand. Massage comes in many forms and the easiest way to massage a lot of people is to use the media. The media is delighted to oblige if for no other reason that politicians, seeking the services of the masseurs, fling wads of cash at them. The media makes a flying catch, trousers the dosh and sits back to await the next delivery, untroubled by the source of the money.

Not everybody sees this as an entirely healthy relationship, even less so when the masseurs are pelted with public funds, money that comes from the pockets of anybody that pay taxes. In this instance, the politician at the doors of the massage emporia was the chief minister of Punjab, Shehbaz Sharif, who handed over Rs5.5 million from the public coffers to fund a four-minute TV advertisement to tell the electorate just what a good job his government had done; and thus massaged that same public could be encouraged to toddle into the polling booths and put an ‘X’ against the PML-N candidate. Now the Supreme Court has applied the handbrake and ordered that the chief minister repay the money — he is presumably not short of a shilling — and the Punjab information secretary has informed the court that the CM is willing to do this.

The SC is entirely right. No chief minister has the right to use public funds and in effect to advance his or her own political career. To do so with a general election close enough to smell is blatant manipulation of an electorate that is open to subtle and not-so-subtle influence. As the bench has already observed this is nothing less than an attempt to rig the polls prior to a vote being cast, and a shameless use of a compliant and ever hungry advertising industry into the bargain. Let this be a lesson for other politicians tempted in the direction of a misuse of public funds — and a star to the SC for scoring a bullseye.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 10^th, 2018.

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