KARACHI: Akram works in a recently installed small printing press as a machine operator.

He was employed on a salary of Rs6,200 a month. Since December, his salary has increased to Rs8,900 a month and he has to work in two shifts for 10 to 12 hours a day.

The unutilised capacity of the printing press has been put into operation after getting a good number of orders.

Printing orders are coming from candidates now in the run for National and Provincial assemblies elections. The owner has increased tariff by almost 100 per cent and is also trying to compensate a workforce of 10 in his small establishment. He is doing all his best to service all his booked orders.

It is electricity breakdown that is hindering the printing press owner from taking up more job work. The owner would have put up a small power generator to keep his press running even when there is an electricity breakdown. But then he wonders whether he would get the same amount of job after the elections.

Akram and about a dozen of his colleagues, including the owner, are the beneficiary of trickle-down effect of billions now being spent in the current election campaign by candidates of National and Provincial assemblies.

“As many as 1,000 candidates of National Assembly can safely be called dummy who are in the run to make some money by seeking adjustments with any of their rivals in their constituencies,’’ said a local PPP activist, with election campaign experience of more than 37 years.

How much money a candidate spends in the election and who are those who share this spending? This question was put to an independent candidate of the National Assembly, provincial leader of a major political party who is contesting but is one of the key organisers of more than three dozen candidates of National and Sindh assemblies, a bureaucrat who comes from a political family and an official of a privatised company who had been an activist as student.

“My capacity is to put in at the most about Rs1.5 million in the current campaign,’’ the independent candidate said pitched against MQM, PPP and other parties.

The MQM takes care of all its candidates of National and Provincial Assembly constituencies. The MQM candidates are not expected to spend anything in their election campaigns. The MQM campaign is highly centralised from the Nine-Zero headquarters in Karachi through its disciplined cadre of workforce in Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur and now in rural areas of Sindh and in parts of Punjab, Balochistan and NWFP.

“An amount of Rs1.5 million is just a peanut when it comes to election expenses,’’ a political activist said.

While candidates are shy to give the real amount of their expenses, those who watch these election campaigns closely, are convinced that a contestant of the National Assembly spends anywhere from a minimum of Rs2.5 million to Rs10 million. It may even be more when it is a clash of titans as between Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar of the PPP and Chaudhry Shujaat in Gujrat, Humayun Akhtar Khan and a PML(N) candidate Shoaib Siddiqui in Lahore. And of course, in constituencies where prospective prime ministers, chief ministers and ministers are in the run, the stakes are high and money splashed about with abandon.

At least one candidate of the PML(Q) in Punjab has bought time from a private channel to canvass for himself. Only political parties — PML(Q), PML(N), PPP and MQM on a very limited scale -- have made use of electronic channels. Popular channels ask for Rs25,000 to Rs30,000 for a minute spot and the budget goes too high if it is repeated 10 or more times every day.

A National Assembly constituency has about 225,000 to 300,000 votes, with 600-plus polling stations. A serious candidate has to reach all his voters. A disciplined party, like MQM, fulfils the job for the candidate. Even the PPP which still has a cadre of what they call “committed workers’’ or “ideologically-motivated political activists’’ job of sifting voters lists, finding out addresses and reach every voter is done by the party.

“Now every worker demands a minimum of Rs250 to Rs300 a day to work for me,’’ said an independent candidate for the National Assembly.

“It is almost 100,000 rupees bill a month if you mobilise 100 workers which is far too insufficient for a constituency. You need at least 400 to 500 workers everyday to move about and reach various places.’’

“Roughly about 1.5 to 2 million young men and women have been mobilised by more than 1,000 candidates of the National Assembly to work for them in all parts of the country,’’ the veteran political activist estimated. He assesses distribution of about Rs1 to 1.5 billion among these active workers in a month.

But bulk of money goes for printing of handbills, banners, bill-boards and placards. “Prices of almost all printing items are on the rise.’’

“My brother in the interior of Sindh got prepared two big hoardings at a cost of Rs130,000,’’ a local official said.

A newspaper reported on Tuesday that of the 1,700 hoarding sites auctioned last month by the city government to advertisers for one, two and three years, 90 per cent have been taken over by political parties in the city.

“The loss is in billions,’’ an advertising agency executive said. Many advertisers have lodged formal complaints with the city government authorities without getting any response so far.

A banner now costs between Rs80 and Rs180 depending on the quality of cloth. Those engaged in banner writing have no time to oblige their new customers.

The polling day is the real test for success or failure of the investment by a candidate. He has to ensure voters turnout and also that voters are served by his supporters at all the polling camps situated near the polling stations. The voters are issued voter cards showing their electoral list number. This is a big work. For this, his workforce needs all tools, the stationery, chairs and tables, and then of course food and water.

“Even the political workers now ask for money for the hard work they put in,’’ another candidate of a political party said. “It is true in rural areas also where tribal affiliations matter, but the feudal candidate too has to keep his workers happy with good payment.’’

At least for last 45 days or so, all caterers and decorators are minting money in Karachi and all parts of the country.

“By the grace of Allah, if everything goes well on polling day and after, we expect same business because those who will succeed will organise parties,’’ a decorator at Soldier Bazaar said.

The rates of decorators are already on the rise. They now demand Rs500 to 600 a day for a small shamiana.

Despite all doubts about elections and uncertainties thereafter, the candidates have put in money in the game and it has benefited quite a good number of people. There are fears of bomb blasts, riots and what not, but there is a consensus that if at all a change is to come, it is through elections on February 18.