Daily Times

Election campaign for NA-120 by-election is in full swing and political parties are busy motivating their voters. One of the posters of newly formed religious party Milli Muslim League (MML) had pictures of both Hafiz Saeed and Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. The poster was widely shared on Twitter and twitterati termed it ironic that right wingers and those accused of involvement in terrorism were now using Jinnah’s name to get votes.

Twitter user Farhad Jarral? tweeted, “Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s worst nightmare would have been this poster. Ashamed of where we are heading as a Country! :(“.

Sabah Alam? said, “A ‘political party’ backed by a terror outfit announces its candidate for #Lahore by-election. On the poster: Hafiz Saeed with Jinnah”.

MQM MNA Saman Jafri tweeted, “Quaid hum sharminda haiN.” Another twitter user Ibraheem tweeted, “Molvis at the time when Quaid was making struggles for independence called him “Kafir e Azam” and see now..”

Twitter user Prateek? tweeted, “Lol! Jinnah would have revolted seeing his face with these clowns.”

Another tweeter A_Wanderlust? said, “For years Hafiz Saeed called democracy a “kaafirana nizaam” and now suddenly it has become Halal for him. Level of hypocrisy.”

Journalist Naila Inayat tweeted,? “Taking ‘Jinnah ka Pakistan’ to another level altogether. #NA120”.

Some twitter users, however, said it is a common practice among political parties to use Quaid-i-Azam’s pictures for their posters, and it is not the first time this has happened.

Zaki Zaidi Al-Wasti? tweeted, “Whats absurd in it? Quaid has been with Altaf Hussain, Nawaz S, Azam Tariq of LeJ, Fazlur Rehman on the poster. Even with Jamat e islami”. Activist Jibran Nasir said Jinnah ‘s name is used by all political parties, whether rightist or leftist, and added that there is nothing wrong with right wingers using his picture for their posters. However, he expressed concern over banned outfits participating in the by-election.

Published in Daily Times, September 12^th 2017.