Zubair Qureshi
Voters in Islamabad’s National Assembly (NA) constituency NA-47 are confused and decry allotting of lookalike election symbols to two rival candidates—the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) supported independent candidate ShoaibShaheen Advocate and a little known Haji Muhammad Rafique Mughal, Chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Emaan (PTE), contesting election from the same constituency. ShoaibShaheen has been allotted the symbol of ‘dove’ while Haji Rafique Mughal’s political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Emaan (PTE) is given ‘hoopoe’ as election symbol. From a distance both the birds look quite similar to each other, said Muhammad Ejaz Ahmed a voter in the constituency saying it could create confusion among the voters particularly the senior citizens and the illiterate on the election day as they might like to vote for one but could choose the other. Haji Rafique Mughal is also contesting elections from the other two constituencies of Islamabad, NA-46 and NA-48. However, his election campaign is so far restricted to NA-47. Interestingly, Haji Rafique Mughal is not only the one who has been allotted a lookalike election symbol similar with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s candidate his political party of which he is self-proclaimed Chairman also carries the ‘lookalike’ name i.e. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Emaan. Besides, the abbreviations of both the parties are also very much lookalike i.e. PTI and PTE. Another irritated political worker Farah Zafar while expressing her dismay at the allotment of hoopoe as election symbol to a candidate who according to her has neither the vote bank nor his party is a popular one said it would only serve to create confusion among the PTI voters.
How could the ECP allow this party’s registration and how could the returning officer for the NA-47 allot a similar election symbol to this guy, she asked. Islamabad’s F-10 sector and others are coloured with the posters, banners and hoardings of Haji Rafique Mughal as a candidate who could ‘liberate’ the country from the clutches of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In his four or five point manifesto given on the small banner Mr Mughal has claimed to start providing justice from the police station level. The second point is: Pakistan would make a fast-track progress exactly on the pattern of Dubai and this target will be achieved within six months of his election as Member National Assembly (MNA).
Another ‘important’ point of his ‘manifesto’ is return of the 25pc of the country’s loan within two years.
All these points sound very sweet but in fact they are unachievable, said Farah adding it amounted to pre-poll rigging when such candidates are given a clean chit to ‘spoil’ elections and indirectly favour ‘someone’ else. Not only election symbols of both the candidates look alike, there are fewer banners or hoardings displaying the PTI-supported candidate’s picture or election symbol which is also a cause of concern for its voters.
It would have been better if the ECP had not allotted this symbol, she said. However, she was confident since the majority of the population in the NA-47 were literate they would not be fooled by such tactics.
