Salahuddin Salarzai, a TV journalist reporting from Bajaur, is shaken. His friend Rehan Zeb, an independent candidate for both National and Provincial Assemblies, has been shot dead in public view.

In Waziristan, Mohsin Dawar, the former National Assembly member, has survived a similar attack. Attacks against candidates and their supporters have also been reported from Dera Ismail Khan.

TV anchor Iftikhar Sherazi, who hails from Dera Ismail Khan, says the city is seen as a swing constituency. In 1970, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had contested from DI Khan and lost. However, many in the town came round to supporting him. “Elderly women in my family wept when Bhutto was hanged. I remember thinking as a child that I was then that somebody in the family had passed away,” Shirazi recalls.

Seen as a battleground, the constituency has always had strong candidates in the field. These have included former National Assembly deputy speaker Fazle Karim Kundi, former minister Ali Amin Gandapur and Maulana Fazl-ur Rehman, the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam chief.

Asked if he and his family would still vote for the PPP, Sherazi says on account of his professional commitments he is unlikely to vote on February 8. “But if it were possible, we would all vote for the PTI.”

Asked why, he says, “Many people have seen Imran Khan hunting game near DI Khan. Others love his style as a cricketer. Many think that he can mend the political system.”

He says the fear of persecution and possible arrest has forced the PTI candidate to shun public places so that his campaign has been hamstrung from the start.

Journalist Danish Malik, who recently covered the PTI rally in DI Khan, says that it was the biggest political gathering in the city people could remember. He says the crowd was charged and the people talked ill of non-PTI candidates.

In Rawalpindi, both the PML-N and the PPP meetings were lackluster affairs.

In Islamabad, too neither the PPP nor the PML-N drew impressive crowds.

Meanwhile, various polls and surveys have put one party or the other ahead.

The secret of a survey’s success in forecasting an outcome lies in the strength of its sample and the framing of survey questions. Few survey takers seem to have come up with questionnaires that will eliminate bias. This has reduced the survey reports to a political gimmick.

The secret of a survey’s success in forecasting an outcome lies in the strength of its sample and the framing of survey questions. Few survey takers seem to have come up with questionnaires that will eliminate bias. This has reduced the survey reports to a political gimmick.

It seems that the voters are not being candid about their choice.

The essence of choice lies in diversity. If diversity is eliminated – whether through an uneven playing field or (in the extreme case) through assassination, the electoral exercise loses all meaning and credibility.

More about Bajaur

Zeb and Salarzai are not total strangers in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Zeb completed an agriculture engineering degree at Arid Agriculture University in Rawalpindi and Salarzai a master’s in mass communication from International Islamic University, Islamabad.

Zeb was chairman of the Tribal Youth Forum. Salarzai was its leader from the IIUI. “We spent countless evenings taking strolls along the Double Road while we discussed politics,” Salarzai recalls. He says Zeb did not discriminate between Pashtun and non-Pashtun youth. “In this respect, he was different from most Pashtun nationalists. The people of the area were rallying behind him,” Salarzai says.

He says the murder has deprived voters of their choice for a new leadership and for change. “Zeb was a very strong candidate in a tough region. [Bajaur, with a population of 1.2 million, has only one National Assembly seat.] Zeb was the top choice of young voters,” he says.

“When unidentified gunmen shot him dead, he was leading a public rally,” Salarzai says. The assailants fled away in their vehicle, he says.

He says Zeb had once been close to the PTI, but the party had not given him its ticket. Instead, Gul Zafar Khan was preferred. “Zeb’s popularity divided the PTI vote. Since 2019, when he completed his degree, he had been engaged in creating awareness among the youth of Bajaur about their rights,” he says. Zeb had also formed an organisation named the Youth of Bajaur.

Hassan Shahzad Zaidi is a teacher of journalism. His X handle is @HassanShehzadZ.

Tahir Naeem MAlik is an analyst. His X handle is @TahirNaeemMalik.