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Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-e-Azam) - PML (Q)

The Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-e-Azam) (PML (Q)) traces its roots back to the All-India Muslim League (as does the PML (N)), founded in 1906. Using the name of the Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Jinnah, who founded the original Pakistan Muslim League in 1948, the PML (Q) lays claim to being the faction most associated with the original group. At the time of Pakistani independence in 1947 the Muslim League was the only major party in Pakistan and claimed the allegiance of almost every Muslim in the country. However, with the deaths of its two principal leaders, Jinnah and Liaquat Ali Khan, shortly after independence and its central goal of creating Pakistan achieved, the party failed to develop a coherent, post-independence ideology. The Muslim League gradually came under the influence of West Pakistani, and particularly Punjabi, landlords and bureaucrats more concerned with increasing their personal influence than with building a strong national organization.

The Muslim League was further weakened by the constitutional impasse in the 1950s resulting from difficulties in resolving questions of regional representation as well as the problem of reaching a consensus on Islamic issues. Regional loyalties were intensified during the constitutional debates over the respective political representation of the country's west and east wings. In addition, East Pakistan had a larger Hindu population, and some strong provincial leaders believed their power depended on developing broad-based secular institutions. The Muslim League, however, pressed for provisions to establish Pakistan as an Islamic state.

General Ayub Khan had the party banned, but encouraged its return in 1962 in an attempt to hold on to power. Two Muslim leagues were subsequently founded, one made up of supports of Khan, and the other by those who opposed him. This split represented the first instance of factionalization, present in the rest of the history of the Pakistan Muslim league. In 1973 these factions reunited, and merged with a number of parties to form an opposition United Democratic Front to challange the PPP. Forming an electoral block with other parties as part of the Pakistan National Alliance (PNA), the PML ceased to exist until it was founded again by Mohammad Khan Junejo in 1985. In 1988 the PML split again into the PML (Junejo) and the PML (Fida Mohammad Group). The PML (Q)'s official history makes the claim that they grew out of the remenants of the former PML (J) while the Fida Mohammad Group turned into Nawaz Sharif's PML (N). However, the PML (Q) came into existance when it split from the PML (N) after General Pervez Musharraf's coup in 1999, creating yet another schism in the history of the PML.

The PML (Q) was the undisputed "King's Party" of General Musharraf's administration. Led by Mian Azhar and later Shujaat Hussain, the party was 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 2000-2001 non-party local government elections, most of the councilors and district nazims belonged to the PML (Q).

The PML (Q) has considered 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 was 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 was minimal, but his name was being floated as a potential Prime Minister.

In January 2008 it was reported that the party claimed to be promoting "the vision of Pakistan's founding fathers," Jinnah and Mohammad Iqbal, a renowned poet whose early 20th century Islamist writings inspired the Pakistan movement. This vision was to include democracy and respect for diversity, along with opposition to terrorism "in all its forms." Yet, while in power, the party came under fire for presenting or preserving legal and legislative obstacles to what Western countries considered to be important human rights protections, such as those for women and religious minorities. Notable leaders remain the "Chaudhrys of Gujrat," cousins from the southern Punjabi city who had been bitter political enemies of Benazir Bhutto and the PPP.

In the PML (Q)'s 2008 manifesto these objectives were outlined. The policy agenda was structured around five areas: Democracy, development, devolution, diversity and defense. The PML (Q)'s manifesto supported continued participation and reform of the democratic process, development in the areas of the general economy, education, and enviornmental awareness, and more power to the provinces (devolved and decentralized authority), promoting diversity in all sectors. In the matter of defense, the PML (Q) supported the Pakistani nuclear program, the right to Kashmiri self-determination, counter-terror activities, permanent peace with India, and a strong region precense.