Disadvantageous?: Asfandyar missing in action

ANP confirms party chief will not be leading election campaign.

SHABQADAR: Like the rest of the country, election fever is sweeping Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa where militants have vowed to disrupt the process. Electioneering is in full swing as candidates are organising public rallies and corner meetings. However, key regional politician Asfandyar Wali Khan is missing from the scene.

Asfandyar Wali’s Awami National Party (ANP) ruled the province for five years after its stunning victory in the 2008 elections. But the party’s policy against Taliban militancy cost it dearly. Dozens of its mid-level and senior politicians have been killed in militant attacks.

Asfandyar himself survived a suicide attack in 2008 at his Hujra in his hometown of Charsadda. After the attack he was not seen in Charsadda until 2012 when he returned to address a public rally. However, militants struck once again, killing and maiming many ANP supporters, though the party chief remained unhurt.

Asfandyar will be contesting the 2013 elections for National Assembly constituency NA-7 (Charsadda-I) – the stronghold of his party. He did not turn up at the office of returning officer to submit his nomination papers. Not only that, his son Aimal Wali Khan and other kinsmen are also missing from Charsadda.



Asfandyar will not be leading his party’s election campaign. Instead the ANP has formed three committees to supervise the election campaign for one National Assembly constituency NA-7, and three provincial assembly constituencies – PK-17, PK-18 and PK-19.

“Our party has decided that Asfandyar Wali will not lead the election campaign due to threats to his life,” Qasim Muhammadzai, ANP’s campaign in charge in Charsadda, told The Express Tribune. “Our leader is dearer to us,” he added.

Asfandyar Wali will face among others Sikandar Sherpao, son of the Qaumi Wattan Party (QWP) chief Aftab Sherpao, Jamaat-e-Islami’s Arshad Khan, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl’s Maulana Gauhar Shah.

Asfandyar’s rivals have an edge. They are openly campaigning, holding public rallies and corner meetings in the constituency. They are even hitting out at Asfandyar for his long absence from the constituency.

However, Muhammadzai disagrees. “The ANP is strong enough in Charsadda to win the election [without Asfandyar leading the campaign],” he said, though he admitted that rival candidates were exploiting the absence of Asfandyar to win over swing voters.

In the neighbouring constituency, NA-8 (Charsadda-II), Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao kicked off his party’s election campaign on Saturday with a corner meeting at his Hujra (guest house). However, Sherpao’s QWP says the party chief will himself lead the election campaign.

“Aftab Sherpao will address public rallies and meetings in all parts of the province,” Lala Faqir Hussain, the in charge of QWP’s election campaign, told The Express Tribune. Though Sherpao also survived assassination attempts, he would not be cowed down by threats, added Lala Faqir.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 8^th, 2013.