1906 to 2024: The Story of Muslim League Factions

On December 28, 1885, when the foundation of the Indian National Congress was laid at the Gokuldas Tejpal Sanskrit College in Bombay, United India, no one would have imagined that this meeting for fundamental reforms under the British rule would proceed that India’s It will lead to division.

This political party, which came into existence in the name of Congress, announced a boycott of British products in the early years of the 20th century, which gave it widespread popularity and political support in Indian society.

Thus, the Congress claimed to represent every class of India, but after the War of Independence in 1857, Muslims felt that they were being especially deprived of their rights under the British rule. While the idea was also common that the Congress was working only to protect the interests of the Hindu majority.

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan promoted the idea among Muslims that they are a separate nation with a separate identity.

Establishment of All India Muslim League

Based on this thought, the Muhammadan Educational Conference was held in Dacca on 30 December 1906, attended by about three thousand people from all over India, in which the movement to form a political party by removing the ban on the participation of Muslims in politics was put forward. done

During the same conference, Nawab Khawaja Salimullah Bahadur proposed to name this party ‘All India Muslim League’.

Among the founding members of this Jamaat were Khawaja Salimullah, Waqar Mulk, Syed Ameer Ali, Syed Nabiullah, Khan Bahadur and Mustafa Chaudhry.

Sir Sultan Mohammad Shah Aga Khan III was elected as the first Honorary President of All India Muslim League. The first meeting of the All India Muslim League was held in Karachi on 29 December 1907 under the chairmanship of Adam Ji Peerbhai.

The British branch of the same party was founded in London on May 6, 1908.

The All India Muslim League was the first representative party of Muslims in united India and was formed with the aim of gaining greater political and civil rights for Muslims under British rule.

Joining of Muhammad Ali Jinnah in Muslim League

Muhammad Ali Jinnah, a young Indian lawyer, joined the Muslim League in 1913 and remained a part of the party until the partition of India and the independence of Pakistan.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah was part of the Indian National Congress since 1906. He remained a part of the Congress till 1920 and was instrumental in the 1916 pact between the Congress and the Muslim League known as the Lucknow Pact.

Thanks to his efforts, Muslim League and Congress started holding their annual meetings jointly.

In 1915 the two parties held a joint meeting in Bombay and again in 1916 in Lucknow during which the Lucknow Pact was signed. Under this agreement, both parties jointly demanded constitutional reforms from the British government.

After being a part of the Congress till 1920, Muhammad Ali Jinnah felt that it was not possible for him to stay in the Congress due to the differences between Mohandas Gandhi and him, so he decided to leave the Congress.

However, he continued to try for better relations between Hindus and Muslims until the 1930s, but during these years, due to the growing distance between the Congress and the Muslim League, violent incidents also happened between the supporters of the two parties.

In the 1940s, the differences between the two parties escalated to the partition of India and Muhammad Ali Jinnah was appointed the first Governor-General of Pakistan and was formally given the title of ‘Quaid-e-Azam’.

On August 14, 1947, All India Muslim League was dissolved and renamed as All Pakistan Muslim League at Khaliq Dina Hall, Karachi.

Division after division in the Muslim League

Immediately after the death of Quaid-i-Azam in September 1948, reports of internal dissensions in the Muslim League began to surface and senior Muslim League leader Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy founded the All Pakistan Awami Muslim League.

This was the first division in the Muslim League, of which dozens of parties have been formed in Pakistan under the name of Muslim League.

In the same year Punjab Chief Minister Iftikhar Mamdot announced the formation of a new party named Jinnah Muslim League. This was the first rift in the All India Muslim League.

In 1949, Mian Iftikharuddin, a left-wing leader in the Muslim League, founded the Azad Pakistan Party, while in 1950, Iftikhar Mamdot and Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy merged their parties and founded the Jinnah Awami Muslim League.

In 1953 Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy removed Muslim from the name of his party and named it Jinnah Awami League. After winning the elections in East Pakistan in 1954, Jinnah Awami League changed its name to ‘Awami League’ in 1956. This party later became the founding party of Bangladesh.

In the year 1954, Ayub Khoro, the first Chief Minister of Sindh, founded a new party named ‘Sindh Muslim League’.

In 1955, Iskandar Mirza, another senior leader of the Muslim League, founded a new party called the Republican Party, which was soon joined by a few more senior leaders of the Muslim League.

In the year 1958, when Iskandar Mirza and the army chief General Ayub Khan imposed martial law in the country, all political parties were declared null and void, under which the Muslim League and all its sub-parties also fell.

Basis of Muslim League convention

In 1962, when the ban on political parties was lifted, Ayub Khan decided to reactivate the Muslim League and, with the help of key leaders of the Muslim League and the Republican Party, during a convention to form a new Muslim League, the Pakistan Muslim League. decided.

But some of these leaders refused to be a part of this party and formed a new party named ‘Pakistan Muslim League Convention’. President Ayub Khan was elected as the head of this party and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as its first secretary general.

After President Ayub’s announcement of the Muslim League, two senior leaders of the Muslim League, Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan and Mumtaz Daultana, formed a new party called the Pakistan Muslim League Council.

In 1965, when the presidential elections were held in Pakistan, Ms. Fatima Jinnah participated in the elections as a presidential candidate on behalf of the same party on the request of the leaders of the Council Muslim League.

In 1967, after falling out with Ayub Khan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto entered politics with a new party called the Pakistan People’s Party.

After some time Sardar Qayyum Khan, the leader of the Muslim League Council founded the ‘Qayyum Muslim League’.

After the elections of 1970, Bangladesh was established in 1971, when the Awami League emerged as the largest party in the former East Pakistan i.e. Bangladesh, while the Pakistan People’s Party emerged as the largest party in West Pakistan.

In 1973, Pir Pagada, a major political figure of Sindh, united the two main factions of the Muslim League, the Convention and the Council, and founded the ‘Pakistan Muslim League Functional’, which is still active today.

In 1977, General Zia-ul-Haq imposed martial law in Pakistan and the Functional League welcomed it, after which the general secretary of the party, Malik Qasim, announced the formation of a new party named ‘Pakistan Muslim League Qasim’.

Establishment of anti-PPP coalition

In 1985, General Zia-ul-Haq conducted general elections in the country on a non-partisan basis, and the opposition parties boycotted these elections.

After these elections, a leader of the Muslim League functional, Muhammad Khan Junejo, formed a political alliance called ‘Pakistan Muslim League’ which won a majority in the parliament. This coalition elected him as the Prime Minister of Pakistan.

Mian Nawaz Sharif, a political leader from Lahore, was also a part of the Pakistan Muslim League in 1985.

When the elections were held in 1988, the Muslim League was part of the Islamic Democratic Alliance against the Pakistan Peoples Party. In these elections, the People’s Party won, but two years later, when new elections were held in the country, the Islamic Democratic Alliance came to power.

Establishment of Muslim League-N

The Pakistan Muslim League remained in existence until 1993, after which Muhammad Khan Junejo’s supporters formed a new faction named Pakistan Muslim League Junejo. The head of this faction was Hamid Nasir Chatta.

While the name of the remaining party was changed to ‘Muslim League-N’ which was headed by Mian Nawaz Sharif. Apart from Nawaz Sharif, the prominent leaders of this party included Raja Zafarul Haq, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Shehbaz Sharif and many other personalities.

The Junejo League supported the People’s Party in the 1993 elections and after the elections Manzoor Vito, the leader of the same party, was made the Chief Minister of Punjab.

In 1995, after internal differences in the Junejo League, Manzoor Ahmed Vito formed a new party named ‘Pakistan Muslim League Jinnah’.

In 1999, General Musharraf overthrew the government of Nawaz Sharif, then for three years he was a non-ruler in the country and then in 2002, when the elections were held in Pakistan, a new Muslim League ‘Muslim League Quaid-e-Azam’ (Q-League) was drawn. The name came out.

The main leaders of PML-N, Mian Muhammad Azhar, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Chaudhry Parvez Elahi, Mushahid Hussain Syed and Sheikh Rashid Ahmed decided to support General Musharraf after these elections.

In 2002, Ijazul Haq, former leader of Muslim League-N and son of General Zia-ul-Haq, founded a new party named ‘Muslim League Zia’.

In 2008, former leader of Muslim League-N and Muslim League-Q Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed formed a new party named ‘Awami Muslim League’.

Another party formed in the name of Muslim League, ‘All Pakistan Muslim League’, which was founded by former army chief General Musharraf in 2010.

Many of the dozens of leagues formed from the creation of Pakistan to 2024 are still active to some extent.

According to the list released by the Election Commission of Pakistan for the general elections 2024, there are currently 175 parties active in Pakistan. According to this list, there are still 21 parties that use the term League in their name, while 19 parties use the term Muslim or similar in their name.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is the largest party that has formed the government in Pakistan once with the Islamic Democratic Alliance in 1990 and with the PDM alliance in 2022. While in 1997 and 2013 elections, this party has also ruled Pakistan on the basis of its majority.

At present, the head of the Muslim League-N is the former Prime Minister of Pakistan Mian Shahbaz Sharif, while the post of Secretary General of the party is held by Ahsan Iqbal.

Before Shahbaz Sharif, Nawaz Sharif, his wife Begum Kulsoom Nawaz and Makhdoom Javed Hashmi have presided over PML-N.

In preparation of this report, Election Commission of Pakistan, Encyclopedia Britannica, Indian National Congress, writer Nadeem Farooq Pracha’s column in daily Dawn: The Muslim League A Factional History, websites of Pakistan Muslim League-N and historian Aqeel Abbas Jafri. Help has been taken from the book Pakistan Chronicle.

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