Afghan elections a boon for city printers

With 10 contenders in the race, Peshawar’s presses are roaring to pick the next Afghanistan president.

PESHAWAR:

It’s not just the political stalwarts who predict the future of an electoral candidate. There are other predictors, which follow the money, the lobbies, and the machinery in place, to spot a winner.

With the Afghan presidential elections, a simple trail to follow would be the printers and publishers whose presses are churning out posters, flags, badges, panaflex posters – in Peshawar. Ink runs fast through the machines in Mohallah Jangi, a street known for its printing business.

The elections, planned for April 5 in Afghanistan, have 10 candidates in the running after Qayyum Karzai withdrew his application in favour of Zalmay Rassoul. As many of the candidates are ethnic Pukhtuns, they wasted no time in sending their workers over to Peshawar to get their campaign material printed so it can be plastered, distributed on the streets of Afghanistan from Jalalabad to Badakhshan.

The printing presses of Jangi

But a quick peek into Mohallah Jangi and it seems as if the votes were to be cast in this narrow alley instead of the neighbouring country. Showing off their business ‘from abroad’, printers have pasted the posters outside their shops.

“The presidential election is going to be held in Afghanistan but its fate will be decided by the strength of the campaigns and publishing material produced in Peshawar,” Mursalin, who runs a printing press in Jangi, told The Express tribune.

He has received orders for posters and badges from two presidential candidates and at least nine other candidates running for the Loya Jirga (grand assembly). However, Mursalin did not divulge their names.

“This time the Afghan government has come up with a policy that all printing material related to the elections should be published in Afghanistan to generate revenue and jobs.”

“Though the contracts for printing the posters and other material are received in Kabul and other cities, they are passed on to publishers in Peshawar for a commission,” revealed Mursalin. The cost of the printing material is somewhat cheaper in Peshawar then Afghanistan, he explained.

“So far I have had a few (such) contracts, but more will come.” The business is expected to keep picking pace, he speculated. As early as last week, printers were stocking up on panaflexes and other material needed to print campaign material. “We are waiting for contracts from other candidates,” said the hopeful publisher.

Irfan Shinwari, another major publisher and printer, was less optimistic. He shared so far only 20% of the publishing contracts have reached Peshawar. Aware that the time for electioneering is fast running out, Shinwari claimed in the previous Afghan presidential elections even President Hamid Karzai’s posters were printed in Mohallah Jangi.

“This time most candidates are reluctant to place their orders here – most of the publishers are using cheap material,” he added. The narrow street churns out at least 2,000 to 3,000 posters per day as well as other material for the candidates, he shared.

Shinwari ran through the numbers for The Express Tribune to highlight the difference between the last presidential election and the one expected in April. “During the last one, publishers in Mohallah earned over Rs6 billion. This time... so far, it’s no more than Rs20 million.”

“There are so many reasons behind this,” speculated the businessman. “Even though most of the Afghans involved in printing business carry legit travel documents, they are stopped everywhere by the police – even jailed. And this is when election fever is at its height.”

Hide the poster trail

“If the government tells the police to stop arresting Afghan customers coming to Pakistan to get things printed at Mohallah Jangi, the street will be minting money within a week.”

Ahmad Yar Haq, who owns a publishing house in Afghanistan, explained although people prefer Pakistani printers for their cheap rates, this time the money given in bribes to the border police has made the cross-border endeavour as costly as getting it printed in Afghanistan.

“The candidates’ workers are being forced to use multiple secret routes to get the posters and badges from Peshawar.”

Over the last one year, 164 publishing units were set up in Kabul alone. Even though these have to run on generators, most people have chosen to depend on these unpredictable businesses instead of being humiliated by the Pakistani police, said Haq.

Swing votes

From Kunar, Suliman Mal has come over to Peshawar to show his support to his favourite candidate by gifting him posters. “Though most of us still aren’t sure if the elections will actually take place in April.”

Even though the presses whir with an urgent hum, Mal mentioned Afghans remain unsure about the efficacy of these elections and whether they will pave the way for the country’s first ever democratic transfer of rule. “In the presence of a visible Taliban force, will it really be possible?” questioned the elder.

“And what about the Afghans in Iran, Pakistan and Tajikistan? The government still can’t decide whether they want to hold elections there.” Mal questions the impact of these “floating votes” even as he got his candidate’s campaign literature printed.

And since there is an Afghan population in those countries, the printing contracts were also being shared across those borders. “But the majority of printing is still being done in Peshawar.”

Most of the publishers talking to The Express Tribune shared they gave a nice markdown to contracts from the Pukhtun candidates, not the candidates from other ethnicities.

“If a Pukhtun wins the presidential election, things will settle down on both sides of the border,” argued Salahuddin from Mohallah Jangi.

Show me the greenback

Salahuddin does not get paid by his Afghan clients in Pakistani or Afghan rupees; its the dollar that cements these relationships. Which goes to explain press owner Murad Khan’s claim: a bulk of the work is being kept secret by the publishers to avoid declaring revenues and paying the taxman, “and because of the ban on printing things in Pakistan.” However, it is still not clear how official this ban is.

Murad has received multiple contracts from Jalalabad, Kabul, Kanduz but the quantity per order is not as big as it used to be in previous elections. “Back then, I used to get the work done in three shifts, day and night.”

And the winner will be

If the whirl of the posters coming hot of the press is any indication, Murad estimated the winners of the Afghan presidential election would be either Ashraf Ghani or Abdullah Abdullah. “They are the ones spending millions on the campaigns and publishing material.”

“If the government of Pakistan changes its foreign policy towards Afghanistan, the printing material in the election would have generated billion of dollars of revenue” he claimed.

Political analyst from Baghlan, Afghanistan, Faroor Syed was in Mohallah Jangi to order 40,000 posters and badges. He also contended the political scenario of Afghanistan will be shaped by either Abdullah or Ghani. “The people of Afghanistan will follow the money; the gatherings and the life-size posters of the candidates plastered everywhere instead of analyzing things.”

“The number of posters in the streets of Afghanistan will decide the fate of the candidates not their legacies and politics.”

Published in The Express Tribune, March 16^th, 2014.