Hero worship: Cuppa politician now part of election memorabilia

Activists throng Mohallah Jhangi to get faces of their favourite leaders printed on mugs.

PESHAWAR: Most political leaders’ faces have been captured on banners, placards and billboards. However, activists in the city attained a new level of devotion when they started printing pictures and sketches of their leaders on tea and coffee mugs.

As campaigning in the city gains tempo, party activists and leaders are giving orders for party flags, badges and posters. The city centre for these activities is Mohallah Jhangi, where political workers throng to give orders for tea and coffee mugs showing pictures of their favourite political personalities.

Humayun Khan, who has a printing press and is now taking orders for printed mugs, said his business is getting a lot of work from election campaigns. “Political workers love to print their leaders’ pictures on mugs,” he explained, adding that an order of less than 50 mugs takes two days to process, while an order greater than that can take up to a week. “We haven’t received a large order so far, but the numbers are increasing.”

Khan said they purchase plain white tea and coffee mugs from the market, degloss them, then make a design, print the picture of a leader and heat it in a kiln for a specific time. “The picture is printed on the mug permanently,” Khan added.



He further said they were getting orders from workers of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Awami National Party (ANP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

ANP activist Fayaz Khan said he visited the shop to get a mug printed with the picture of Bashir Bilour. PTI supporters, on the other hand, print the picture of Imran Khan, while PPP and PML-N workers ask for Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif. The mugs, which cost Rs200 per piece, are then used as decoration pieces in party offices and houses or given as gifts to other workers.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 15^th, 2013.