Riven by groupings within the party in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the PPP leadership has been struggling to provide stable leadership to unite and reorganise the party in the province.

In the last decade, the PPP provincial chapter has had five presidents, all nominated from the top.

"There is no party. We are virtually on our own." —PPP campaigner in Peshawar

The party leadership in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, or whatever that remains of it, seems more interested in Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s election from Malakand, leaving the party candidates elsewhere to fend for themselves.

But even if they had been around, there would have been little they could have done to help their candidates by mobilising jiyalas to counter Insafians.

The PPP that once was one of the major political parties in KP has suffered erosion in its ranks, senior party leaders acknowledge, adding that disenchanted with the ideological drift of the party, many of its workers have opted to join the PTI.

Read more here.