Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf carries an offering at the shrine of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti at Ajmer in the desert Indian state of Rajasthan March 9, 2013. PHOTO: REUTERS
While officials are reluctant to share details of the expenditures of Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf’s Ajmer trip, his boarding a Pakistan Air Force plane suggests the cost has been borne by Pakistani taxpayers.
A 29-member entourage, including the premier and his family, departed for the shrine of Sufi saint Hazrat Khwaja Gharib Nawaz in Ajmer on Saturday on a special aircraft. The Times of India reported a 40 member entourage, including the crew, was on board.
Foreign Office spokesman Moazzam Ali Khan was unavailable for comments. Director General Inter-Services Public Relations Maj-Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa did not respond to phone calls and messages.
“The return airfare from Islamabad to New Delhi to Jaipur and back is over Rs100,000 per person,” said Khawaja Zafar, the director of United Travel Agency, Islamabad.
Had PM Ashraf been making the trip like an ordinary citizen, he would have ended up paying at least Rs3 million on account of travel charges in addition to other costs.
The cost of staying in a five-star hotel either in Jaipur or Agra runs into tens of thousands of rupees. A modest room in a five-star hotel costs at least $200 per night, which would bring the cost of accommodation close to Rs1 million.
“It will immediately be difficult to quantify the financial impact of the premier’s private visit to India, but one thing is evident that the visit is part of a financial hari-kari going on since Ashraf assumed the office of prime minister,” said renowned economist Dr Ashfaque Hasan Khan, who is also Dean of the Business School of National University of Science and Technology.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 10th, 2013.
COMMENTS (34)
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Tax payers....! who...? what...? really ....! who are these tax payers in pakistan
Hello, hello, wake up fellows. No serving President or Prime Minister in the world makes private visit to the country it regards as its enemy and whose military is facing each other on LOC in Kashmir. These talks can only be held confidentialy. This is the purpose of the PPP leaders visit, one after another. How naive or daft one can be! What is the burning subject which Pakistan wants clarified.
Rex Minor
I remember when we made the trip from Hyderabad to Ajmer. We didnot have the money to buy an air ticket. It took 3 days by train and we forgot our water container [drinking water] on the way back. My father would donate money every year after that. But after his death the holy men have stopped visiting us.
Why is that our leaders feel the need to perform religious obligations at state expense ? They should know that their hajj, umras are not acceptable to Allah until performed using one's own funds. They do fool the public but are our leaders also trying to fool Allah ?
@nishant: This is definitely and no-doubt the Indian government's biggest ever committed mistake not Pakistan's government.First talk to and control Indian government then talk to Pakistan's government....
@Khurram: "When will the people of Pakistan understand the truth that it was created to be a fiefdom for the few to exploit it with impunity which would otherwise have been impossible had India stayed united."
and I think that India itself is being exploited by its "elites"! Curse of this subcontinent, I would say.
When will the people of Pakistan understand the truth that it was created to be a fiefdom for the few to exploit it with impunity which would otherwise have been impossible had India stayed united.
There should be no official Hajj trips for the rich and powerful. There should not be any religious tours and trips for any person on public expense. If these tours like going to Hajj are justified then why not going to Vatican by the Christians and other holy places by minorities on public months?
The supreme court should take suo moto notice on misuse of public funds for private visits not only for himself but also for 19 family members.
It is pointless crticising Mr Rajah since he is a Rjah - the real culprits are the ordinary and the educated elites that are going to put them in power again. The dirty devil doing his time in Sands and sun of the Middle East will not care - they will vote for their Rajah jee. It is not right to moan when you are responsible for your own actions - how low can you get if you vote in fake degree holders - but then they say it is Pakistan - and Mr Zardari Jee. You will moan and groan under the taxes, nothing will change until and unless you bring back the real Pakistanis living in the West - the real educated Pakistanis.
People! Please! This is, after all, the "peoples" government! If the President is what he is, then why should "his" prime minister be any different?
Why complain, you people has put them there, and now come next elections, they are trying like crazy to come back to fleece the country. If some how they don't come back then they have their posh residences in France,England, USA and Dubai to go to and live happily after like the Commando is doing.
These folks are not ORDINARY THIEVES . . . they are not only deceiving the ordinary people, they are deceiving Hazrat Khwaja Gharib Nawaz as well . . . and all this with a straight face!
When this thug is voted out, he better not be allowed to escape out of the country. Every cent that he wasted of our country should be squeezed back from him. This is a disgrace, an utter disgrace.
If PPP wins any seats now, we deserve to be hammered by these 'elected representatives'
One of the above comments about qadeer khan is funny... He made billions selling centrifuges blueprints and he is a fraud.. A metallurgist which our nation loves to call nuclear scientist endorses fraud water kit car which proves his understanding of Physics.
Though he may have only paid from his airfare till delhi and India has spent lot more on his trip. So please inculde all the facts.
On the other hand, why didnt anyone say anything when musharraf the visited the shrine.
wat abt indian tax payer money spend on its helicopter travel,cost on welcoming him as per protocol and ofcourse cost of cleaning d heli which he used.
India must have paid for the stay at Jaipur - normal practice for foreign PMs no problem here -- but this was supposed to be a "private" visit! Indian tax payers should protest footing bills for "private" visits.
Being on our soil, helicopter expenses and other expenses in India are free.
Correction
harakiri not harikari
@Cacha: Vote for whom i think Qadeer Khan is the best choice available.A person who has sacrificed every for his country a true hero of our nation.
Well why don't you people put same questions to Bureaucracy, police,wapda,ssgc, telcom,magistrates,dco,commissioners,judges, revenue ,fbr, labour department,agri etc they are 4 lakh people squeezing our tax payer money daily @ 100 billion. Because everybody is afraid of these blood suckers.These minister prime minsters their stooges will leave but the real scavenger will remain on their seats suck our hard earned money indefinitely. Why not shove them out.Make their life miserable as they have made ours.Majority of them are serving the interests of their foreign masters.Stand up and safeguard your country from these internal leechs.
Aj be Butto Zinda hay... Shame on us to vote for PPP
he should made visit to Abbas Town: Karachi, Badami Bagh town: Lahore and Hazara Community: Quetta instead of visiting Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti at Ajmer on such hight cost. In my opinion, he planned to pay visit to Shrine just to get media exposure and protocol in India like Zardari got but boy has failed to manage that. :o poor soul
Islamic laws amended by all previous dictators and assemblies that all visits on state/public money are HALAL specially holy place by those who are rich and well to do,one has to be just in power corridors that all.Cheating is not bad one has to be just bold enough.
Nero fiddled while Rome was burning. Apparently he prayed for World Peace, no less at Ajmer
Nathan
The trip was ill-timed and a dent on a tax payers money, however one couldn't be more wrong when saying that it was part of financial hara-kiri under process since assumption of office by the current Prime Minister. For all his follies Raja Pervez Ashraf has been far better and modest than his predecessor who evidently felt an insult to repeat a tie or wear the national dress.
Well done Raja Pervez Ashraf and make hay while the sun shines.Because democracy is much the best form of revenge as Zardari has been said and saying and corruption and PPP's government go together.....
I wonder when & where these people going to use their personal wealth !
we dont want pakistanis in our country, dont you get it ???
It is amazing that so much of our money was spent on this visit which India was reluctant to host in the fist place. Is this visit going to help PPP win the elections?
This was personal visit, with 28 other person These people do not feel shame, to spend public money like this Any body ask them
So what else is new? And to think that these same people are going to come into the government again. This is Pakistan. We should be used to it by now.