ISLAMABAD: Symbols allotted to political parties and individual candidates play a vital role. It may as well be described as the hopeful’s official identity on polling day. But the emblems allotted by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) are much more than that.
There are 107 political party and 224 independent candidate symbols according to the ECP.
The bat of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf matches the persona of its party chief, the all-rounder cricket legend-turned-politician Imran Khan, often referred to as “Kaptaan” (captain), who vowed change and delivered a major blow to the country’s corrupt political heavyweights through judicial process.
Khan took a deadly swing at the tiger, the symbolic big cat of Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) commonly called a lion, and seriously wounded the former ruling party, sending its leader and three-time ex-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, his daughter, and son-in-law to prison.
The resilient tiger, a status symbol of power and strength, the Punjab-based party’s mascot, is fighting back to retain its provincial reign.
The country’s southern-based Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) identifies itself with a meaningful arrow aimed at progression through democracy — assassinated ex-premier Benazir Bhutto’s symbol of choice for her party spearheaded by her young and charismatic son Bilawal Bhutto. Three fins or feathers on each side of the arrow stand for the party’s commitment of “bread, clothes, and shelter” to the people.
Khan has warned in an interview with Arab News, the arrow will not be spared by his bat to uproot corruption, meaning the PPP’s co-chair Asif Ali Zardari is next.
The kite symbol of the southern metropolis of Karachi’s once mightiest party, Muttahida Qaumi Movement, stood for uplifting the poor middle class.
The Awami National Party based in Pakistan’s northwest province, has used the lantern. It’s a beacon of light to overcome darkness.
The alliance of five religious parties which form Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal have the most symbolic emblem. The book, a sign of literacy and education, is largely seen as the Muslim holy book and a magnate to harness public attention using one of the country’s most powerful religious image.
Many independent candidates have been allocated the jeep, a controversial symbol that depicts the military establishment. PML-N has called it a symbol of “invisible forces” which saw its stalwart Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, the prominent independent who choose the jeep over the tiger, depart.
Regardless of what the symbols mean, the country of 210 million people with a 58 percent literacy rate will cast their vote matching the symbol image to the preferred candidate.
