3 summer 2011 - Prince Claus Fund

parties such as the MQM and PPP, which needed to woo the religiousvote bank than the actual religio-political parties that had already carvedout such an identity for themselves. A PPP poster (Figure 20) shows threecropped photographs of Benazir Bhutto; the most prominent is an imageof her head nestled within the crescent of a moon, facing the Ka’aba, herhands raised in prayer. Below, on the left, she is seen with a copy of theQur’an held over her head in a visual metaphor of protection, and on theright, she is waving one hand while the other holds a tasbeeh or rosary.26.These graphic demonstrations of piety i were a ‘bequeath’ of GeneralZiaul Haq’s Islamisation era. According to Iftikhar Dadi, ‘At this juncture,Pakistani leaders were negotiating with the legacy of fundamentalism,even as everyone understood that neither Benazir, nor Nawaz Sharif, norAltaf Hussain were “fundamentalists” or even personally pious.’ 14of the people27.saima zaidi236The production and dissemination of design can garner public opinionand facilitate the democratic process. An example is the trajectory takenby Solidarity, a pluralistic mass movement of radical democratic changein Poland from the 1980s. ‘Its activities, characterized by a commitmentto non-violence and subversive resistance to the harshly repressiveCommunist regime, eventually led in 1989 to the first democratic electionsin a Communist country since 1946.’ A popular poster referenced theAmerican film of 1952, High Noon, in which Gary Cooper is the cowboysheriff who stands ready to confront ‘the Communist outlaws’, armed notwith a gun but a ballot for Solidarity. 15 The same theme was evoked in apre-election poster-based campaign in 2002 in Zimbabwe; designer andsocial activist Chaz Maviyane Davies created the slogan ‘Take courage:Vote’, highlighting the need for freedom of expression and a violencefreesociety that would combat hunger and poverty by reviving democracy.A tagline on a poster declared ‘You don’t need a bullet, when you’ve gotthe ballot. Violence solves nothing. Use your vote’. 16In Pakistan, in the 1970s, a rallying cry of the PPP, Maang raha hai har Insaan:Roti, Kapra aur Makan (The clamour of every person: Bread, Clothing andShelter), echoed the basic needs of millions. In 2008, the manifestos oftwo major political parties centred on the 5 Es (Employment, Energy,Education, Environment and Equality) and the 5 Ds (Democracy, Development,Defence, Devolution and Diversity). The ruling party, the PML-Q, based much of its campaign on education, highlighting it in televisionadvertisements prior to the elections. Using the catchy slogan Parha likhaPunjab (A Literate Punjab) it featured students in rural classrooms alongwith images of party chairperson Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, also the PunjabChief Minister at that time.i. Also, it is important to note that parties such as the MMA and Jamaat-e Islami (whichboycotted the 2008 elections) etc. would not want to offend voter sentiment byusing photographs of leaders, which is perceived as forbidden in Islam. They insteadrely on architecture or objects such as Prophet Muhammad’s green-domed mosquein Madinah or the curved sword as it appears in the Saudi Arabian flag.Figures 26–32. Billboards of PML-N and PML-Q, Lahore.Large billboards cover the façades of buildings. The predominantcolour for both contesting parties is green andwhite while the distinguishing features are the electionsymbol and images of party leaders.Figure 26 shows two billboards placed over the façade ofa mosque, the one on the right features King Abdullah ofSaudi Arabia, with Nawaz Sharif on his right. This appearsto serve as a reminder of the close ties of the latter with theleader of the country which provided him political asylumin 1999.Figure 27 shows the exterior of the central office of the PML-N covered with billboards, wall chalkings and flags. On theleft is a photograph of the symbol of the PML-N tiger. Also, abillboard depicts the Sharif brothers and the candidates for theprovincial and National assemblies.Figure 29 displays a billboard of the PML-Q with a photographof Quaid-i-Azam at Chauburji, Lahore. The election symbol,the bicycle, is highlighted within a white circle. Figure30 shows the candidate Mian Muhammad Aslam Iqbal,with his arms raised in a glowing green silhouette in frontof a photograph showing supporters attending a politicalrally. Another photograph on the same billboard shows thecandidate addressing a gathering. Names and photographs ofthe sponsors are lined up at the bottom.Figure 31 shows candidate Moonis Elahi, waving frombanners stretched on a wall. Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi andChaudhry Shujaat Hussain focus on the bicycle with theslogan ‘The identity of the people is the cycle, the symbol ofvictory is the cycle’.Prince Claus Fund Reader #1 · Summer 2011 · 26