List of political parties in Pakistan

Pakistan
This article is part of a series on the
politics and government of
Pakistan

Pakistan is a multi-party democracy. The country has many political parties and it is common for the country to be ruled by a coalition government. The Parliament of Pakistan is bicameral, consisting of the National Assembly of Pakistan and the Senate. The main political parties in Pakistan are listed below in alphabetical order.

Major parties

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf

Imran Khan
Former Captain: Pakistan National Cricket Team
Founder: Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Centre.

Imran Khan leads Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) (Pakistan Movement for Justice) under the slogan: "Change". On 25 April 1996, in Lahore, the PTI, a social democratic and Third Way political movement, was founded by Imran Khan.
The PTI boycotted the 2008 elections but became more politically active by 2011.
The PTI claims to represent all Pakistanis regardless of religion, ethnicity, language or residence. It aims to create a modern, egalitarian, Islamic democratic and Welfare state.[1][2][3] The PTI promotes a nationalist agenda, arguing that Terrorism, Extremism and Radicalism have increased since Pakistan joined the War on Terror.
The Party emerged as country's second most popular party in 2013 elections.

It is currently the ruling party in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. In 2018 General Elections Imran Khan became the Prime Minister of Pakistan and PTI secure 116 seats in National Assemble and clean sweep KPK by taking 63 seats in Provincial Assembly.PTI is also ready to make Government in Punjab and collaborated Government in Balochistan.

Pakistan Muslim League - N

Pakistan Muslim League (N)(پاکستان مسلم لیگ (نون) is a large political party of Pakistan, tracing its history to the All-India Muslim League that played a central role in the creation of Pakistan under the leadership of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Pakistan Muslim League re-emerged onto the national political scene in Pakistan as part of the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad coalition against the Pakistan Peoples Party in the elections held in 1988. PML-N served two terms in the 1990s with Nawaz Sharif as the Prime Minister. His second term in office was cut short by a military coup d'etat led by General Musharraf. PML-N boycotted the general elections in 2002. In the 2008 elections, PML-N formed government in the province of Punjab. In 2013 elections, the PML-N secured a majority in the National Assembly. It formed government in the center, Punjab and a coalition government in the province of Balochistan, followed by governments in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and Gilgit-Baltistan. Nawaz Sharif was elected Prime Minister for the third time in 2013.

Pakistan People's Party

Asif Ali Zardari, former President of Pakistan and the leader of Pakistan Peoples Party.

On 30 November 1967, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), a democratic socialist party, was founded by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (1928 - 1979). The PPP ran in the 1970 general election with a socialist agenda of Roti, Kapra, Makan (Food, clothes, shelter). It favoured ties with China over the Western nations and ruled Pakistan after the Fall of Dhaka. After completion of first parliamentary term, the PPP succeeded in the Elections of 1977 but were quickly overthrown by Zia ul Haq. Under Benazir Bhutto, the PPP became a secular party that promoted Social Liberalism as well as privatisation in order to secure funding from the US and the World Bank. From March 2008 to March 2013, it was leading party of the ruling coalition. Party faced defeat in elections of 2013. The PPP currently holds 41 senate seats and 42 national assembly seats.[4]

Awami National Party

In 1986, the Awami National Party (Popular National Party, ANP) was founded by Abdul Wali Khan. It is a leftist, secular party that promotes Pashtun nationalism, democratic socialism, public sector government, and economic egalitarianism. It supports ties with Afghanistan, India, and historically the Soviet Union.[5] The ANP held 7 seats in the senate and 3 seats in the National Assembly. Asfandyar Wali Khan, grandson of Bacha Khan is the incumbent president of the ANP. Between 2008 and 2013, it was part of the ruling PPP led coalition.[6] It performs well in Pashtun dominated areas in and around Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the Balochistan provinces.

Awami Workers Party (AWP)

In November 2012, the Awami Party, Labour Party and Workers Party merged to form the Awami Workers Party in an unprecedented effort to build a genuine Left-wing politics alternative to mainstream political forces in Pakistan. The party’s programme was designed to bring together the disparate struggles of workers, peasants, students, women, ethnic, and religious minorities in Pakistan under the banner of a democratic socialist-feminist politics. AWP supports people’s struggles around the country, from working with peasants on land rights and water access in Buner, supporting the tenant farmer’s movement for land rights in Okara, organizing brick-kiln workers against bonded labor and wage abuse in Punjab, supporting the struggles of textile and power-loom workers in Faisalabad for human wages, social security and improvement in work conditions, organizing peasants and working classes against abuses by elites and for an equitable land distribution in Sindh, standing in solidarity with historically oppressed ethnic groups such as the Baloch, Hazara and multi-lingual communities of Gilgit-Baltistan, to the construction of alliances with trade unions against neoliberal privatization and contract labor across the country. AWP has organized resistance against forced evictions from slums in Islamabad and managed to secure a stay order from the Supreme Court of Pakistan to prevent any further demolitions of slums following the Capital Development Authority's operation that razed the Katchi Abadi (slum) in Sector I-11.[7]

Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan

The Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan was founded on 26 August 1941 in Lahore , the party was founded by Abul Ala Maududi, a Muslim theologian, and philosopher. It aims to create an Islamic democracy in Pakistan ruled under Sharia law. The JI elects its leader democratically; Siraj ul Haq is the incumbent amir. After the independence of Pakistan in 1947, JI moved its base to West Pakistan. During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 it opposed the independence of Bangladesh, and were in involved in various atrocities resulting in killings of thousands of west Pakistanis. In 1975, it established an independent political party in Bangladesh, the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami. JI now has its headquarters in Mansoorah, Lahore. JI has an association with international Muslim groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood. And also called as the peace keeping party of Pakistan.

Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam (F)

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Assembly of Islamic Clergy, Fazl-ur-Rahman Group, JUI-F) is an ultra-conservative religious and theocratic party which, in 2002, formed a ruling coalition with Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and with the PML(Q) in Balochistan. It currently holds 15 seats in the National Assembly, 5 seats in the Senate, 17 seats in the Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 8 seats in the Provincial Assembly of Balochistan. Its economic policy is socialist and moderate.[8]

Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM)

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (United National Movement, MQM) was founded in 1978 by Altaf Hussain (who went on, in 1984, to found the Muhajir Quami Movement) from the student organisation, the All Pakistan Muhajir Student Organization (APMSO). It is supported by the urban Muhajir community of Sindh.[9] The MQM is socially liberal and democratic. In 1997, the MQM officially removed the term Muhajir, which refers to Urdu-speaking Muslims and replaced it with Muttahida (United). Between 1992 and 1999, the Pakistan Army, in Operation Cleanup, attempted to suppress the MQM.[10] On 11 September 2001, the MQM condemned attacks by al-Qaida in the US with public demonstrations.[11]Dr Farooq Staar MQM 2018

Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT)

The Pakistan Awami Tehrik (Pakistan People's Movement) is a politically radical, ideologically centrist and religiously moderate political party. Populist sufi cleric Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri is its founding chairman. In 1990, Pakistan Awami Tehrik (PAT) participated in the national elections just one year after it was founded. In 1991, PAT and TNFJ (Tehrik-e-Nifas-e-Fiqh-e-Jafria, a shia political group) now known as Tehrik-e-Jafaria signed a 'Communique of Unity' to promote social and religious harmony. PAT enjoys considerable support among religious but moderate lower middle class of the country. The party's entire political influence is based on agitation and public demonstrations. Party's vote bank and electoral power is considered to be limited unlike the PPP or PTI.

Tehreek e Islami

Tehreek e Islami is an Islamic revolutionary religious and political party of Pakistan.[12] It was founded by the author and Islamic scholar Naeem Siddiqui in 1994 following his exodus from Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) in 1993, after the failure of Jamaat e Islami in the politics of Pakistan. Its head office is in Karachi. Its objective is to make Pakistan an Islamic state, governed by Sharia law, through a gradual process. Tehreek e Islami strongly opposes capitalism, liberalism, socialism and secularism as well as economic practices such as offering bank interest. Like Jamaat-e-Islami and Tanzeem-e-Islami its members form an elite with "affiliates" and then "sympathizers" beneath them. The party leader is called an ameer. In 1996, the party split into two groups,[13] one group was led by Naeem Siddiqui himself while the coordinator of the other group was Hafeez ur Rehman Ahsan.Due to the endavour and mediation of some Arab based Pakistani friends both the groups were re-united in 1998,he expressed the story of re-uninion in a letter to his friend Khwaja Maqbool Ellahi in 2001[14] by saying that our difference was unique and now our union is also very unique.[15]. After the unity of both the groups of the tehreek e Islami Naeem Siddiqui became its spiritual and political Qauid(leader)[16].

List Of Political Parties in Pakistan
No.NameAbbreviationSymbolFoundation
year		Current leader(s)
1 Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf PTI Bat 1996 Imran Khan
2 Pakistan Muslim League (N) PML(N) Tiger 1988 Shahbaz Sharif
3 Pakistan Peoples Party PPP Arrow 1967 Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Asif Ali Zardari
4 Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam JUI-F Book 1988 Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman
6 Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan (JI) Balance 1941 Siraj ul Haq
7 Awami National Party ANP Lantern 1986 Asfandyar Wali Khan
8 Muttahida Quami Movement-Pakistan MQM-P Kite 2016 Khalid Maqbool
9 Pak Sarzameen Party PSP Dolphin 2016 Syed Mustafa Kamal
10 Awami Workers Party AWP Bulb 2012 Fanoos Gujjar

Minor or regional parties

Senate

PartySeats
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf13
Pakistan Peoples Party25
Pakistan Muslim League (N)27
Awami National Party6
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F)5
Muttahida Qaumi Movement8
Pakistan Muslim League (Q)4
Balochistan National Party Awami2
Jamat-e-Islami Pakistan2
PkMAP3
Independents10
Others7
Total104

National Assembly

Affiliation Members
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf 150
Pakistan Muslim League (N) 82
Pakistan People's Party 53
Muttahida Qaumi Movement 6
Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal 12
Pakistan Muslim League (Q) 3
Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party 4
National Peoples Party (Pakistan) 3
Awami National Party 2
Others 7
Independents 8
 Total
 342
 Ruling coalition majority
 176

Members of the PML(N) are marked in bold text

See also

References

  1. ↑ Khan S. M. "Pakistan's creation pointless if it fails to become Islamic welfare state." Pakistan Tribune 27 June 2012.
    "Imran Khan said on Wednesday that Pakistan's creation had been pointless if the country fails to become an Islamic welfare state."
  2. ↑ Michaelsen M. "Pakistan's dream catcher." Qantara 27 March 2012. "Iqbal's work has influenced Imran Khan in his deliberations on an Islamic social state."
  3. ↑ "Constitution of Pakistan Tahreek e Insaaf" Archived 2 March 2013 at the Wayback Machine. Insaf party website.
  4. ↑ "Senate position" Government of Pakistan.
  5. ↑ "Pakistan" The World Factbook, Central Intelligence Agency Accessed 5 January 2013.
  6. ↑ "Pakistan's 'Gandhi' party takes on Taliban, Al Qaeda". Christian Science Monitor. 5 May 2008. Accessed 9 May 2008.
  7. ↑ Abbasi, Munawer Azeem | Kashif (2015-07-31). "Hundreds of homes reduced to dust". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 2018-07-30.
  8. ↑ Daily Times, Pakistan. 14 December 2008.
  9. ↑ "Pakistan: Human rights crisis in Karachi." Archived 4 November 2006 at the Wayback Machine. Amnesty International 1 February 1996. Accessed 26 July 2009.
  10. ↑ Haq F. "Rise of the MQM in Pakistan: Politics of Ethnic Mobilisation." Asian Survey, University of California Press 1 November 1999 35(11) p990 - 1004 doi=10.1525/as.1995.35.11.01p00677 Accessed 3 August 2009.
  11. ↑ "MQM is a liberal and democratic party: Altaf." Daily Times, Pakistan 26 May 2008. Accessed 17 May 2011.
  12. ↑ Naeem Siddiqui,Pachpan Saala Refaqat(urdu),Alfaisal Nashiran Lahore 2010,p.61 & p.119
  13. ↑ Ibid p 78
  14. ↑ Ibid,p128
  15. ↑ Ibid,p128
  16. ↑ Ibid,p128
  17. ↑ GEMC ([Upddated]). "Election Results 2013". Geo Election Monitoring Cell. Archived from the original on 12 June 2013. Retrieved 28 May 2013. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  18. ↑ Irfan Ali Shaikh. "Acid test for MQM". October 04, 2002. Daily Times. Archived from the original on 5 November 2012. Retrieved 16 May 2013.

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