Poetics of politics: Maybe it rhymes but where’s the reason?

Political parties in Karachi have devised creative slogans and memes to woo their voters, undermine opponents

KARACHI:

In Karachi, politics and poetics have always had a strong relationship. Be it the Pakistan Peoples Party's (PPP) age-old songs in praise of Bhutto or the Muttahida Qaumi Movement's (MQM) memes ridiculing their opponents, most parties certainly seem to have put their creative heads together for innovative slogans.  

The city's largest political party, the MQM, has unveiled a large number of slogans made exclusively for its election campaign, titled 'Baiktiar awam, khushaal Pakistan' [Empowered citizens, prosperous Pakistan].



The new slogans include, Mayor tow apna hona chahiyah [The mayor should be our own], Karachi ka vote, Karachi kay liay [Karachi's vote for Karachi] and Kam tow apnay hee atay hain [Only your own will be helpful]. "Our slogans stress that MQM is the true representative of Karachi and that the mayor and the local government representatives should be from this party only," explained its spokesperson, Aminul Haque. The party has also composed songs that will be released soon.



MNA and member of the MQM's cyber communication department, Ali Raza Abidi, said that posters and banners of memes have been released on Facebook and Twitter, while a larger audience has also been reached through WhatsApp.





Some of these memes suggest to 'Keep calm and vote 4 kite,' while others hit out at opponents such as, 'Dekh bhai Mayor ko kaam kerna chahiyeh, batain tou Imran Khan Bhi bohat kerta hai' [Listen brother, the mayor should work; even Imran Khan can talk a lot].

Jamaat-e-Islami (JI)

The JI has composed a new song, 'Aao Badlein Apna Karachi,' titled after its campaign.

The in-charge of the party's election cell, Engineer Sabir Ahmed, said that they want to change Karachi and bring back the team of Niamatullah Khan. "We want to change the law and order situation. We want Karachi to be developed and restore its peace. Through our campaign, we are motivating people to bring in new leaders." But the MQM's slogan of 'Mayor tou apna hona chahiye' has also struck a chord with the JI, which has hit back with its own slogans, 'Mayor tou sab ka hona chahiye,' [The mayor should be for everyone] and 'Mayor tou dayanaatdar hona chahiye' [The mayor should be honest].



The party says it is organising rallies and cricket matches as part of its campaign at an annual ceremony of awarding scholarships, it distributed free android tablets to students of UC-17 in North Nazimabad.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf

'Karachi ki asal pechan, ballay ka nishan,' [Karachi's true identity is the bat symbol] is the main slogan for the party, said PTI Karachi vice-president Arsalan Ghumman. He also shared other slogans coined by the party to hit out at its biggest competition, the MQM.  The slogan, 'Apna tou wo hai jo apno main hota ha [Ours is he who lives within us]', leaves no doubt as to who it is aimed at. Meanwhile, the party's head of social media operations, Imran Ghazali, said that the slogan for their campaign is #Karachipukarrahahai.



"We have been covering the campaign on social media with candidate's profiles to highlight corner meetings since the campaign started," he said.



For the two days Imran Khan was in Karachi, the party gave live updates using hashtags #KhiRiseswithIK, #IKUnitesKhi.

PPP

The PPP, it seems, is the only mainstream party that has brought nothing creative to the table. PPP MPA Shamim Mumtaz said that they have not released any new party slogan or song, and will be contesting the elections with their old popular slogan, 'Roti, Kapra aur Makaan' [food, clothes and housing]. "We don't feel the need to bring in new slogans."

They seem to be putting faith in the people's love for Bhutto, with most of their slogans focusing on the former leader of the party, Benazir Bhutto, and her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. These include 'Na pir ka na mir ka, vote hai Benazir ka' [Neither for the Pir, nor for the Mir, the vote is only for Benazir] and 'Yeh shehr kis ka, Bhutto ka' [Whose city is this? Bhutto's].

Published in The Express Tribune, December 1^st,  2015.