The use of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as a political tool: A case study of tobacco industry in Swabi Pakistan

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is perceived as a major component of contemporary business policies. It is considered as a significant tool for business promotion and survival in the 21st century. The ideas of CSR (Welfare) and the business model, tobacco companies create a contradictory concept as it kills one-half of its chain users. Tobacco companies are strictly prohibited by international and local laws from the promotion of their products. In order to cope up with such strict laws, they start social initiatives. Hence, they take help from the idea of CSR. Through CSR they earned a soft image and entered in politics to influence public policy in their favour. This paper is an effort to discuss the real situation behind CSR initiatives of tobacco industry in Pakistan. Annual reports of Philip Morris Pakistan and Pakistan tobacco Company are analysed. Interviews of local companies’ owners or officials, research papers, newspaper articles and related sites have been investigated to get the conclusion. Resultantly, this paper emphasizes on the CSR regulations and centralization. The findings also indicate that tobacco money is directly and indirectly used in politics in the form of CSR.