In Pakistan, where large segments of society suffer from illiteracy, political parties resort to symbols to identify their candidates in campaigns and on ballot papers. Some candidates accuse the authorities of undermining their campaigns by giving them strange or sometimes even insulting symbols.
A spokesman for the Electoral Commission explained that the symbols are chosen from a list designated for independent candidates, “which is exclusively the prerogative of the directors of the polling process’” The party of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the Pakistan Muslim League, is raising Assad as its symbol in this election campaign.