HARIPUR: In an apparent bid to move against the tide for the first time in their electoral history, the ‘Tareens of Rehana’, who are adamant they won’t ditch PTI founder Imran Khan, appear to be optimistic they will retain the provincial assembly seats they won here in the last general elections.

Forty candidates, including nominees of small and mainstream political parties as well as 16 independents, are in the running for three provincial assembly seats The candidacy of Tareens of Rehana, Rajgans of Khanpur, Awans of Sikandarpur, Utmanzais of Khalabat Township, Gujjars of Kotnajibullah, Pirs of Sirikot and Jahazonwala group of Ghazi has added colour to the elections just like always.

Also, in the electoral arena are two more Tareens from Darwesh -- the relatives of former provincial assembly speaker Habibullah Khan Tareen.

One of them is Zafir Khan Tareen, son of a retired bureaucrat and first cousin of Akbar Ayub, while the other is Ghazan Iqbal Khan Tareen, also from Darwesh. Both are closely related to the Tareens of Rehana.

They count on PTI’s popularity, their uplift projects

Zafir is the PTI-P’s nominee in PK-46 Haripur-I, while Ghazan is the district chief and candidate of Jamaat-i-Islami for NA-18 seat.

The election of descendants of late president General Ayub Khan has always drawn attention.

This time around, Akbar Ayub Khan and his brother, Arshad Ayub Khan, who are the first cousins of PTI general secretary and candidate from NA-18 Omar Ayub Khan are the grandsons of late president Gen Ayub Khan.

Akbar Ayub is now vying to make a hat trick from PK-46 Haripur-I as the PTI’s nominee. He made his debut in politicsduring the by-election of 2015. He is facing his political rival, Qazi Mohammad Asad Khan, a representative of chief of Awan family of Sikandarpur. Qazi Asad, who defeated Yousuf Ayub in 2002 and his brother Arshad Ayub in 2008 and served as the provincial minister, eventually lost to Tareens thrice – in 2013, by-election in 2015 and later in 2018.

The candidature of PTI-P nominee Zafir Khan and Jehanzeb Khan, an independent in the same constituency, has made the election scene interesting. However, the actual contest, according to observers, is between independent candidate Qazi Asad and Akbar Ayub.

Both are claiming to be in a strong position against each other and count the uplift projects both had brought during their tenures as minister.

From among the Tareens of Rehana, former irrigation minister Arshad Ayub is testing his luck for the second time in PK-47 Haripur-II as the PTI candidate. He is facing independent Raja Faisal Zaman who lost the 2018 election to Arshad, who claims to have brought development schemes to the constituency that remained a stronghold of the Rajgans of Khanpur.

The Rajgans, who have made a political alliance with former MNA Sardar Mushtaq Khan, representative of the largest Gujjar clan and PML-N’s former MNA and sitting candidate for NA-18 Babar Nawaz Khan, appear to be in a stronger position against Arshad Ayub compared with the past.

The Rajgans have also succeeded to mend fences with each other burying family’s dispute to a great extent and that is considered as one of their political strengths in the run off to Feb 8.

There are 16 candidates for PK-48 Haripur-III seat in the Ghazi-cum-Haripur constituency.

Noted among them are PML-N candidate and nephew of Senator Pir Sabir Shah Sahibzada Hamid Shah, PTI nominee Malik Adeel Iqbal, former MPA and independent candidate Faisal Zaman Jahazonwala and former MPA and independent Gohar Nawaz Khan.

However, Faisal Zaman who remained MPA for three times is struggling to stage a comeback for the fourth time. Despite being on bail in a double murder case, he is still a formidable candidate.

Observers believe that Faisal is banking on his ability to win the hearts of voters as well as his family’s social services and development projects he brought to the area.

In this constituency, the Tareens of Rehana have not fielded any family member though the fourth generation of General Ayub is almost waiting in wings to be fielded in the political arena.

Under the party discipline, the Tareens who are the frontline leaders of the PTI this time around are supposed to throw their weight behind PTI nominee Malik Adeel Iqbal but they are struggling to win the support of Jahazonwala group and Pir Sabir Shah for Omar Ayub’s election in NA-18.

Record shows that affiliation of the Tareens of Rehana with the PTI doesn’t go beyond 2013. Their fickle political loyalties have always remained under criticism by their detractors.

Rivals still doubt their sincerity and term theircurrent stance prelude to some future understanding, the way they stood tall in the testing times of Imran Khan for the first time in their political career, earned them appreciation from the PTI’s ranks and files.

Banking on that yet-to-be-diluted political party’s popularity and the development schemes worth billions of rupees, they appear to be confident of returning winners this time around, too, at least at the two provincial assembly seats.

Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2024