Eggplant, bottle, bed among election symbols for Pakistani candidates

Pakistan Poll: Many candidates randomly assigned baubles’ symbols.

Islamabad:

Aamir Mughal waved an eggplant in front of a crowd of voters to drum up support for the Pakistani staple during the campaign, which he said was being undermined by the strange symbols assigned to candidates. “The eggplant is now a famous symbol across Pakistan,” declared a follower of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan, a candidate in the capital Islamabad.

“This is now the king of vegetables.”

In Pakistan, where literacy rates hover around 60 percent, political parties use icons to identify candidates in campaigns and on ballot papers.

But as a military-backed crackdown puts pressure on opposition parties, some candidates say authorities are trying to hamper their campaigns by giving them symbols that are insulting or downright bizarre.

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was banned from taking part in Thursday’s polls and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party was stripped of its long-standing cricket bat symbol for failing to comply with Election Commission rules.

Dozens of his followers were also not allowed to run, and some of them, now running as independents, reported being harassed or forced into hiding.

Others have been randomly assigned some gadget symbols and are trying to impress in the campaign.

A spokesman for the Election Commission of Pakistan said the symbols were chosen from a list designed for independents and were “purely the prerogative of the election officials”.

lustfulbad‘

The humble eggplant – or “empty“In Pakistani Urdu – a key ingredient in Pakistani cuisine.

It also has mature symbolism, especially as an emoji that alludes to the male anatomy.

“The election commission assigned us this symbol to mock us,” said Mughal, 46.

“We felt weird,” he admitted sheepishly.

But the Mughal team had already decided its fate. An aide followed him with a bag of purple produce. He held it like a mascot and gave a speech against a background decorated with eggplants.

He held it aloft as he addressed voters, like Shakespeare’s Hamlet gazing at the skull. Their campaign has become so popular, they claim the price of eggplants in grocery stores has quadrupled.

“This symbol gave me extraordinary fame,” Mughal said.

“Everyone wants to see it because they know this symbol belongs to Imran Khan’s candidate.”

sleep symbol

Ejaz Gadam romantically describes his constituency in the eastern province of Punjab as his ancestral home – the “final resting place” of his people.

Perhaps fittingly, he was given the symbol of a bed.

“They are trying to humiliate us with the symbols they have given us. Some candidates feel embarrassed telling people the symbols they have been given,” complained the 50-year-old candidate from Bahawalpur.

“This is not an election, this is cruelty.”

His mark is “crib” – a simple wooden frame bed with braided rope springs on the surface, often used in low-income households.

“It is a very useful household item. While we are alive, crib Let us rest. When we die, it takes us on our final journey,” Gardan said.

“My logo is already a household name. I don’t need to introduce it to my constituents.”

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party, thought to be backed by the military, is lobbying with the symbol of the scary big cat. But Gadan isn’t worried.

“A lion is a bloodthirsty beast,” he said. “There is no place for beasts in our society.”

“empty ship”

In northwest Pakistan, Shehryar Afridi was outraged after receiving a bottle sign.

In the local Pashto language, calling someone a bottle means they are an “empty vessel” – boring and thoughtless.

It also means drinking in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a province dominated by conservative Islam.

“Most PTI candidates, myself included, have been given symbols aimed at creating negative bias,” said the 45-year-old candidate from Kohat.

“We are deliberately given symbols that can be used to mock us.”

Afridi filed a lawsuit in the provincial capital Peshawar High Court but did not get any relief.

He said: “When we entered the campaign space during the election campaign we received such backlash against the bottle symbol that it automatically undermined our campaign.”

But the savvy operator has tweaked his symbols. “The bottle represents not only alcohol but also drugs,” he said.

“That’s why we turned our election symbol into a medicine bottle – so we can solve all of society’s problems.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)