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Sardar Mahtab Ahmad Khan ^[1] is a famous politician of Circle Bakote and a lawyer who was the first person from his constituency to became chief minister of the North-West Frontier Province. Sardar Mahtab Khan was known as the king maker of Circle Bakote, as it was difficult for people to enter politics without his patronage.

Contents 1 Early life 1.1 Education 2 Chief minister 3 2002 general elections 4 2005 local elections 5 Arrest 6 Personal News 7 References

Sardar Mahtab Ahmed Khan is a member of the Bodhrheal branch of the Dhond Abbasi tribe. He was born in Malkot in 1952. His mother was from the Chandal branch of the Dhond Abbasi tribe of Bandi, Birote and is the first cousin of renowned Kashmiri freedom fighter and Ex-President of Pakistan Administered Azad Kashmir Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan.

Sardar Khan passed his matric from Osia High School and graduated from the Sir Syed School in Rawalpindi. He then went on to do his LLB and practised in the courts of Rawalpindi. Finding the legal profession not to his liking, he joined his father Mohammed Nawaz Khan's clothes business in Sader, Rawalpindi. His uncle Sardar Sarfaraz Khan had contested local elections but never won and so promoted his nephew Sardar Mehtab in Circle Bakote, who was elected for the first time in 1985 as an independent candidate. He became popular among the people of Circle Bakote and has been successful in every election until now.

Sardar Khan became the 22^nd chief minister of the North-West Frontier Province on the 21st of February 1997, taking over from Raja Sikander Zaman, until 12^th October 1999^[2]. During his tenure he invested money Circle Bakote, which is a relatively poor, and underdeveloped area. He electrified 100% of his area, constructed metalled roads, upgraded schools and provided water supply schemes and telephone to his region. He has broken the monopolies in district capital Abbottabad and appointed honest and hard working officials in every government department^{[citation needed]}.

He also invested heavily in his constituency, providing facilities such as, telephone, water supply schemes, link roads, especially the Kohala - Moolia road, Sowargali - Boi road, Berote Kalan - Berote Khurd, and the Osia- Malkot road. He constructed the Murree - Abbottabad road as a motorway and upgraded high schools in Ayubia, Birote and Bakote. His term was cut short by the military coup of 12 October 1998 and he was arrested from Kabbal, near Swat^[3]. He was involved in the wheat scandal Case in Attock Fort. However, he was later released after the High Court found him not guilty. He remained in Attock Fort jail for three years. He is a senator now. He opposed the award of ticket to Sardas Idrees Khan of Karhal Tribe of Galiyat as a candidate of PML (N) to the Ex-Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mian Nawaz Sharif in 2002 general elections, but he won the election as MPA of NWFP Assembly, and joined the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), and was appointed as Provincial Minister of the Local Bodies Ministry.

He said in his first speech as CM in assembly and notified that the title Abbasi should not be appended to his name. His name has always been written in news and official documents as Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan, this is cited as proof that he does not belong to the famous Abbasi tribe.

The Dawn Newspaper (Karachi) wrote on September 20th, 2002 that Pakistan Muslim League (N) was struggling very hard to maintain its supremacy in Abbottabad district on two national and five provincial assembly seats. The party had failed to field its own candidate in the NA-17 (Abbottabad-1) constituency and instead unsuccessfully backed an independent candidate, Dr Azhar Jadoon, to oppose the PML-Q^[4], the first cousin of Abbottabad District Nazim Col Mustafa Jadoon and a close relative of NWFP Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah. Abbottabad had been a stronghold of the PML(N) for a long time and in this area the Nawaz League made a clean sweep on National and Provincial Assembly seats in the previous elections.

Sardar Mehtab still commands considerable influence in the area politics with a sound vote bank that he has been maintaining since 1985 in upper belt of the Abbottabad district. Amanullah Khan Jadoon, who has been the strongest rival of Sardar Mahtab Ahmad Khan since 1988, was being considered to win the NA-17 with a thumping majority but now the wide gap has considerably narrowed down. Other candidates contesting for NA-17 are: Ali Asghar Khan, brother of late Omar Asghar Khan, who has been backed by QJP, MMA candidate Al-Haj Habib-ur-Rehman Abbasi, Asif Malik Advocate, the chief of Hazara Qaumi Mahaz who is in the race with the support of PAT. Another prominent candidate is PPP’s Sardar Abrar.

Abdul Rehman Khan Abbasi,the grandson of Muhammad Ameer Khan, who is well known for his social and political activities since 1970 in the Bhutto era, emerged as a political figure in 1985 elections in Zia’s regime. Abdul Abbasi challenged Sardar Khan in the 2002 elections, he was the only selected candidate for the provincial assembly by the great alliance of majority of noble people from Circle Bakote, and became know as the new king maker in the last local elections not only play major role to won maximum seats for the group but also first time in the history of 20 years badly defeated Sardar Mehtab Khan in his town home.

In the 2005 local elections the Ruling Pakistan Muslim League won a majority of the union Nazim seats, 32 out of 51, in Abbottabad district, confronting PML-Nawaz with an unprecedented defeat, which claims to have roots in the area but got only 9 seats followed by Jamaat-e-Islami, PPP-Parliamentarians and PPP-Sherpao^[5]. According to unofficial results, Sardar Hyder Zaman's group backed by the Federal Minister for Petroleum - Ammanullah Khan Jadoon with other political figures like Haji Abdul Razzaq Abbasi, Nazir Abbasi, Jan Qureeshi, Gulzar Abbasi, Sardar Nisar Abbasi, Sarfraz Abbasi and Arshad Abbasi, has now made smooth sailing to get the slot of district as well as tehsil nazims Abbottabad which was considered a strong hold of PML-N faced a set back as almost all their stalwarts were defeated despite the fact that former chief minister Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan was actively remain involved in the election process.

Even, PML-N backed candidates failed to get a single seat from the home constituency of Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan as a result Haji Abdul Razzaq Abbasi was elected as nazim by defeating Sardar Mehtab Khan's candidates with great margin. Nine former nazims were able to retain their seats. They include Shaukat Ali, Saeed Mughal, Azam Khan, Ashraf Khan, Sarfraz Abbassi, Arshid Abbassi, Sardar Gulzar Abbassi, Nazeer Abbassi, Malik Habib Ahmad and Abdur Razaq Abbassi. Except Abdur Razaq Abbassi, all elected nazims belongs to Sardar Hyder Zaman group.> according to Dawn Karachi on 29 August, 2002 the officers of PML-N's different wings and members of provincial council have expressed concern over the allotment of party tickets for PF-44 and PF-46 and urged the central leadership to "save the party from complete collapse." Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, they charged that Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan had caused more damage to the party in three days than what the government had managed in three years.

They lamented that for PF-46, the ticket had been awarded to Malik Manzoor Hussain Advocate, ex-assistant advocate general, NWFP, who had not even applied for it while for the Abbottabad city seat, the ticket had been given to Inayat Iqbal Khan Jadoon, son of former NWFP chief minister, the late Iqbal Khan Jadoon, who had not yet filled out the party's basic membership form. Those who were present at the press conference included Adam Khan Jadoon, former president High Court Bar Association, Abbottabad bench and member PML-N provincial committee and Younis Khan Tanoli, president High Court Bar Abbottabad bench. Samiullah Khan Jadoon, provincial president MSF, Hammad Ali Shah, provincial president Labour Wing, Javed Khan Jadoon, president Hazara Youth wing, Sajjad Khan of Bagra, a candidate on PF-46, Saeed-ur-Rehman Advocate, president PML-N city, Qazi Ghanzanfar Advocate, Col Amanullah (retired) and other office-bearers.

Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan was re-elected as Senior Vice President of PML (N) of NWFP in November 2006. He was arrested by Abbottabad Police on 17th November 2007 for leading a demonstration against Military rule following the state of emergency that had been declared earlier that month.

• Mohammed Nawaz Khan the father of Sardar Mahtab Khan passed away on 30th October 2007. Earlier Sardar Sarfraz Khan, a personality who minted Sardar Mahtab as unbeatable politician of Circle Bakote was died in 2004.

Political offices
Preceded by Raja Sikander Zaman	Chief Minister of the North-West Frontier Province 21 February 1997 - 12 October 1999	Succeeded by Akram Khan Durrani