Amir Muqam is an unscrupulous survivor. At six feet, two inches, the civil works contractor-turned-politician stands out not only for his height but also for his quick-witted ability to leave the sinking ship.

A graduate in civil engineering from the University of Engineering & Technology in Peshawar, Mr Muqam began his political career as a union council nazim from his native Bengalai in northern Shangla district in 2001.

Come 2002, the burly Mr Muqam decided to try his luck in national politics by contesting elections on a Jamaat-i-Islami ticket under the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal banner. But his association with the MMA came to a somewhat early end when his running mate from the provincial assembly, also a JI candidate and an old party parliamentarian, Pir Muhammad Khan, was denied the opportunity to become a speaker simply because he was clean-shaven.

Mr Khan remained sidelined but Mr Muqam opted to join the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid after having remained independent for some time and rose to become its provincial president.

There is no dearth of stories as to how Mr Muqam got closer to the former military ruler, Gen Pervez Musharraf, but they were apparently so thick that at a public meeting in Kabal, Swat, in July 2005 the former president held up his hand, declared him his brother and gifted him his personal Glock pistol.

“Gen Musharraf had special affection for me. Maybe because I supported him on the construction of the Kalabagh dam and also supported him vociferously in the National Assembly,” recalls Mr Muqam.

Not surprisingly, when a self-exiled Gen Musharraf began harbouring political ambitions and thought of forming his own All Pakistan Muslim League, Mr Muqam, his self-declared brother from Shangla, was one of the few to whom he turned for support.

Politely, Mr Muqam declined the proposition. “I told him he had no future in politics and that his story was over,” says Mr Muqam.

But somehow he could not come to terms with - or so he claims - with the agreement the PML-Q leadership had clinched with the Pakistan Peoples Party after 2008 to form a coalition government in Islamabad. He took the oath as a federal minister but never went to his office and resigned soon afterwards.

Closer to the 2013 elections, Mr Muqam began fishing around again for possible switchover options and held negotiations with the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.

His critics say he kept the two parties engaged and guessing - both were looking for political heavyweights. The plan worked. Mr Muqam was accepted into the PML-N, elevated to the party’s senior vice president along with a battery of other PML-Q office-bearers from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa who were all accommodated on key positions, much to the chagrin of PML-N old-timers.

But Mr Muqam made a difference not just by strengthening the PML-N in KP but also by helping to deal a near-fatal blow to the PML-Q. He is hard-working and a strong campaigner. Relentless, he tours the length and breadth of Malakand to drum up support for his party candidates and if his party does well, he could be one of the serious contenders for the chief minister’s slot in the province.

As for his former benefactor and one-time brother now held in judicial custody in his swanky Chak-Shehzad residence, Mr Muqam has words of sympathy only. “I have sympathy for him. I have a great respect for him. But as for his political future I don’t think there is one left for him.”