Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-e-Azam) – PML (Q)
The PML (Q) is the undisputed ‘King’s Party’. Led by Mian Azhar, the party is backed by General Musharraf’s government and has been heavily promoted by the Army in Punjab and in Sindh. The PML (Q) started as a small group of half a dozen like-minded people in the PML, including Mian Azhar, Khurshid Kasuri, Abida Hussain and Fakhr Imam in defiance of Nawaz Sharif and his family's monopoly on the party. The group expanded and took the form of the PML-Q. In 2000 and 2001, the Musharraf administration pressured local PML-N leaders and former legislators to defect and join the PML-Q. The majority obliged. In the 2000-01 non-party local government elections, most of the councilors and district nazims belonged to the PML-Q.
The PML (Q) considers itself liberal, moderate, and progressive. Although they are backed by General Musharraf, they have, at various points, promised a permanent removal of the army from the civilian domain to gain credibility with the public. PML(Q) leaders individually have offered variations on the theme: there can be a National Security Council (NSC) but it should be presided over by the prime minister and not the president. The party agrees with General Musharraf on his change of policy over Afghanistan and the adjustments he has had made to his Kashmir policy. The PML (Q)’s agenda and program for governance is vague, but the party’s confidence is high. The Asia Times reports that the party recently took out a brazen full-page ad in major newspapers in which statements and opinions of politicians and analysts were reproduced saying that the PML-Q would be in power "by hook or by crook", to which is added the comments, "Why waste your votes to the losers. Cast your votes to those to whom all political parties and newspapers reckon as winner." Party leader Mian Azhar’s national-level support base is minimal, but his name is being floated as a potential Prime Minister.
