Pakistan Tries a New Way to Pay for a Dam: Crowdsourcing
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pav Akhtar is not one to fall for TV donation ads. In fact, he says, he and his siblings jokingly chide their mother for watching them on Pakistani satellite channels at their home in Lancashire, England.
But when he saw the call on a Pakistani news show for overseas Pakistanis to donate to a new fund-raising initiative, he wired his money without hesitation.
“It’s not a generic begging bowl,” said Mr. Akhtar, 40. “It’s a specific demand for a specific outcome, and that motivates me.”
Mr. Akhtar was not donating to a charity, though. He was giving money to the government.
The financially challenged Pakistani state is running a crowdsourcing-style campaign in a last-ditch effort to secure $14 billion to build two dams, which officials say will solve the country’s endemic shortages of water and electricity. It has become the cause du jour for Pakistanis both at home and abroad.
Television news shows regularly feature the day’s biggest donors handing over their paychecks en masse, including the national soccer team, Pakistani politicians, government employees and members of the military.
Radio ads across the country implore average citizens to donate even 10 rupees (less than 10 cents) over the phone. Pakistani celebrities have announced their own hefty donations on social media and made fund-raising appeals to their fans.
This week, Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, who created the fund, berated the television channel Geo News in the Supreme Court for not donating “a single penny” to the dam project.
“Did Geo group hold a marathon transmission for dam funds?” he said. “Geo has not taken the lead over the dam issue even though it is the biggest of all channels.”
