Mr. Tahir Mehdi travelled 1,897 kilometres over 20 days in the Punjab reporting for the Dawn 2013 Election Cell. He traveled on a motorcycle, met hundreds of people and discussed politics, elections and their lives. He shared his experiences from the field through 20 news reports under the rubric of Motorcycle Diaries.

Mr. Mehdi is a founding member of Punjab Lok Sujag, a socio-cultural and research organization. His main research interest is electoral governance, and he is the author of The Pakistan Election Compendium, a three volume set that offers facts, summary and detailed results of nine elections held in the country since 1970 covering all five houses, national and provincial. Mehdi has also been associated with journalism for the last 25 years. He is a regular contributor for Dawn and has also written for The News on Sunday and the monthly Herald.