Pakistan Muslim League

I am proud to be part of Pakistan Muslim League as it has the richest history possible being the party of the father of the Nation. It is a centrist party which accommodates view points from different socio-economic backgrounds striving for reconciliation at all times, with a presence in all provinces and regions of Pakistan. It has maintained traditions of inner party democracy.

What follows is a section on select quotes from Quaid, PML Vision, Our manifesto highlights, PML History and a preamble of the PML Constitution.

For more information on PML please visit our website.  

 

Quotations of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah

  • “I want you to keep your heads up as citizens of a free and impendent sovereign State. Praise your Government when it deserves. Criticize your Government fearlessly when it deserves, but do not go on all the time attacking, indulging in destructive criticism, taking delight in running down the Ministry or the officials.” Reply to welcome address, Edwardes College, Peshawar,18 April 1948.

  • “Traders and merchants as true Pakistanis will help to reconstruct and build Pakistan to reach a mighty and glorious status amongst the comity of nations of the world….” Address, Karachi Chamber of Commerce, 27 April, 1948.

 

  • “We do not cherish aggressive designs against any country or nation. We believe in the principle of honesty and fair-play in national and international dealings and are prepared to make our utmost contribution to the promotion of peace and prosperity among the nations of the world.” Quaid-i-Azam Broadcast, February, 1948.

 

  • “The Muslim League has won and established Pakistan and it is the Muslim League whose duty it is now, as Custodian of the sacred trust, to construct Pakistan.” Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

 

  • “We do not cherish aggressive designs against any country or nation. We believe in the principle of honesty and fair-play in national and international dealings and are prepared to make our utmost contribution to the promotion of peace and prosperity among the nations of the world.” Quaid-i-Azam Broadcast, February, 1948

 

  • I am sure that democracy is in our blood. It is in our marrows. Only centuries of adverse circumstances have made the circulation of the blood cold. But the blood is circulating again, thanks to the Muslim League’s efforts.” Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. April 24, 1943

PML Vision

Our vision is shaped by Pakistan and Pakistan alone, and the interests of Pakistan and its people always come first. Pakistan is paramount for us all, as the country created by the Muslim League under the great leadership of the Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. As inheritors of this legacy of the freedom struggle, we have to promote the vision of our founding fathers, Quaid-i-Azam and Allama Muhammad Iqbal. Promoting pride in Pakistan, projecting history of its Freedom Movement and respect for its Founding Fathers is the corner stone of our vision.

  • Live and let live.
  • Decency, tolerance and harmony.
  • Ensuring justice and freedom of expression.
  • Family values.
  • Dignity of the common citizen.
  • Protection and promotion of the rights of the female population and providing freedom from fear and oppression.
  • Opposing hypocrisy and double standards.
  • Protection of the rights of minorities.
  • Promoting human rights and respect for the rule of law.
  • Stating ‘Kalima-e-Haq’ (Truth).

 

Democracy

  • Pakistan itself is a product of the democratic process under the leadership of Muslim League led by the Quaid-i-Azam. Democracy, therefore, is central to our belief. We are convinced that the right to vote, without fear or favour, is sacrosanct and there should not be any infringement of this fundamental right.Apart from supporting parliamentary democracy and fair and free elections under a strong and independent Election Commission, the Pakistan Muslim League also believes in promoting a democratic political culture within the country and within the Party. We strongly believe in inner party democracy, where all Party members have the right of dissent and difference of opinion.

Development

  • Economy: The economic and social development of Pakistan is the backbone of our nation. The PML shall develop an enterprise culture which develops skills, supports workers and creates jobs. The Pakistan Muslim League strongly believes in promoting self reliance at all levels and considers this a major means to mobilize the creative skills of the Pakistani people. The rights of labour and peasants should be protected and the PML wants to develop a skilled labour force to meet the challenges of a vast growing economy. The minimum wages of labour will be periodically fixed to counter inflation to provide a reasonable standard of living for the wage earners.

 

  • Education: Education is PML’s number one priority, is central to building a modern developed society and the Pakistan Muslim League will seek to ensure free and universal primary education. The PML also makes a commitment for mass literacy in the country within the next 10 years. The PML would also like to set aside a special day in the national calendar as the “National Teachers Day”

 

  • Health Care: On the issue of health, the PML aims to have a National Health Service backed by sustained investment in hospitals to provide better treatment to the patients. Doctors will be given special incentives to serve in rural areas. The PML also plans to upgrade and expand the existing health care structure of the country, specially focusing on the far flung and the less developed regions of the country. This would include expansion and up-gradation of the existing health care network with modern medical facilities and setting up of separate female/gynae units in each hospital and medical centre.

 

  • Environment: the PML is committed to a greener and cleaner Pakistan and all major projects that would be undertaken in the future would have an environmental feasibility study. A national campaign would also be launched to provide steps to protect the environment, particularly the protection of green areas, planting of trees and development of forests. The PML will also set up a Food Safety Commission for the prevention of adulteration and preservation of better standards for food hygiene and safety throughout the country. Quality control of foodstuffs will be ensured through legislation and administrative monitoring.

 

  • Devolution: The Pakistan Muslim League is the architect of devolution of powers in Pakistan and it strongly feels that decentralization is a key to good governance. The PML believes that strong provinces mean a strong Pakistan and it does not subscribe to the doctrine of a ‘strong centre’. The Pakistan Muslim League is committed to provincial autonomy within the federal framework, and it will continue the positive initiative taken in this regard by the Parliamentary Committee on Balochistan.

 

  • Empowerment of women: It is pursued with vigour since no country can progress unless and until it gives over 50% of its population equal rights in the country’s political, social, economic and cultural life. Women’s rights would be protected, restored, strengthened and promoted on every level. The PML strongly believes that no meaningful national development can be achieved without the full participation of women in nation building. Empowerment of women has a multiplier effect on the family and the whole nation.

 

  • Defense: The Pakistan Muslim League believes that a strong defence is imperative to guard the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. The PML shares the entire nation’s pride in the professionalism of its Armed Forces. The PML supports modern and well equipped Armed Forces, as a professional fighting machine functioning within the framework of the Constitution. Such a defence force is vital for national security. The PML supports the development of an indigenous defence capability and defence production since that is important in lessening dependence on outside assistance.

 

  • Foreign Policy: The PML feels that no foreign country has the right to dictate or interfere in Pakistan’s internal affairs and we seek to build friendly relations with all countries on the basis of equality and reciprocity. The PML strongly feels that international politics should be governed by the rule of law and the United Nations Charter and it rejects any notion of “might is right” since that would mean reverting to the law of the jungle. Pakistan shall not allow its territory to be used against any neighboring country and the PML feels that the country’s foreign policy should be geared towards strengthening Pakistan’s security and stability, with the first priority being peace in the region where Pakistan is located.

 

History of PML

Phase One (1906-1947) The Muslim League has passed through three distinct phases in its history of almost one hundred years. The first phase began in December 1906, when Muslim leaders from all over the South Asian Subcontinent laid down the foundations of the All-India Muslim League (AIML) at Dhaka to provide a platform for the Indian Muslims to fight for the protection of their rights and interests. Its primary aim then was to secure separate electorates for the Muslims, for which it organized a systematic campaign both within the Subcontinent and in Britain. Its demand was accepted and incorporated in the Government of India Act of 1909. Once that objective was achieved, it moved to forge close relations with the Indian National Congress, which had opposed its demand for separate electorates. Among other motivating factors were the Muslim disappointment at the annulment of the Partition of Bengal (1911), and the British response to the Tripolitan and Balkan Wars, and Russian aggression in Iran . In 1912, the AIML changed its objectives; henceforth, it aimed at the “attainment of a system of self-government” through constitutional means. It was now in a position to negotiate with the Congress on equal terms. The negotiations that were conducted between the two parties culminated in the League-Congress Accord, known as the Lucknow Pact (1916), in which common demands for constitutional reforms were evolved. The principal architect of this Pact was Mohammad Ali Jinnah (1876-1948), who had joined the AIML in 1913. The Lucknow Pact endorsed the system of separate electorates for the Muslims, and introduced the principle of weightage, i.e. reservation of seats for the minorities more than their proportion in the population of a province warranted. The Government of India Act, 1919, incorporated these constitutional demands in a modified form. 

Before the introduction of these reforms, the Muslims were agitated by several developments such as the Khilafat issue, the Rowlatt Bills/Act and the Jallianwala Bagh tragedy. Although the AIML was equally concerned about all these issues but it gradually lost the initiative. Many of its leaders wanted to focus on constitutional, issues but their appeals were submerged in the emotionalism that the Khilafat Movement generated in the Muslim community. Other parties whose leaders had once been active from its platform overshadowed the AIML itself. But the Khilafat Movement not only failed to achieve its objectives but it also embittered Hindu-Muslim relations. Its failure was followed by widespread communal riots. The Muslims again turned to the AIML for the protection of their rights. However, before the party could really organize itself, the all-white Simon Commission and the Nehru Report, which had an anti-Muslim bias, caused serious divisions in AIML ranks. The Muslim League adopted the Fourteen Points (1929), drafted by Mohammad Ali Jinnah, which brought about temporary unity but the deterioration that had set in the party could not be controlled, not even by the presidency of Allama Mohammad Iqbal who in his presidential address at its annual session in 1930, advocated the idea of a separate homeland for the Muslims. Early in 1930s, quite a few all-India Muslim leaders including Maulana Mohammad Ali, Mian Sir Mohammad Shafi and Raja Mohammad Ali Mohammad of Mahmudabad died or became inactive in politics. Jinnah himself shifted to England . In 1933, the AIML again suffered a serious split, which was bridged only after it elected Jinnah as its President.

Mohammad Ali Jinnah assumed the leadership of the Muslim League on his return from England . The party revamped its constitution and began the process of its organization at the grassroots. Before it could consolidate itself, it participated in the 1937 provincial elections. Despite shortage of time and weak organizational structure, it won 104 out of 489 Muslim seats, and 70 per cent of the seats that it contested. The Congress arrogance especially after it assumed power in the Provinces and its desire to absorb autonomous’ entities by initiating a Muslim Mass Contact Movement rallied the Muslims around the Muslim League. Its attempts to eliminate Muslim cultural identity in the Congress-governed provinces alienated the Muslims throughout the Subcontinent. Such policies strengthened the rising Muslim consciousness of separate nationhood and swelled the ranks of the AIML. After lengthy deliberations, the Muslim League adopted the Lahore (better known as ” Pakistan “) Resolution at its annual session in 1940, demanding a separate homeland for the Muslims in the Muslim majority areas. The Pakistan Resolution fascinated Muslim elite as well the masses, and catapulted the image of the AIML and its leader, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. The party organization was consolidated during the Second World War and its proof was demonstrated in the 1945-46 elections. The Muslim League won all the seats in the elections to the central legislature and scored an overwhelming majority in the provincial elections. Even after such a clear verdict, the British still tried to subvert the Pakistan demand by attempting to impose the Cabinet Mission Plan (1946), which proposed a confederal structure for a united India . The AIML had to resort to `Direct Action’ to frustrate this attempt. After prolonged negotiations and great reluctance, the Muslim League demand for Pakistan was finally conceded in the June 3 rd Plan. As a result of implementation of this Plan, Pakistan was created as a sovereign country. Had the Congress and its allies accepted the Pakistan Demand with sincerity, the bloodbath that attended partition might have been averted and more viable steps could have been taken for the protection of minorities in the two countries. The first phase of the Muslim League ended when its all-India Council, in a meeting in Karachi in December 1947, decided to bifurcate the organization into two parties, one for Pakistan and the other for the Indian Union.

 

Phase Two (1947-1971): The Pakistan Muslim League (PML) was formally organized in 1948-49. Its governments at the centre and the provinces confronted problems that no other newly independent state had to face in modem times. Observers described its survival as a miracle. The Muslim League organization made it possible under the inspiring leadership of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Liaquat Ali Khan with the cooperation of every section of the Pakistani society. No other political party posed any serious challenge to its authority during their lifetime. However, the PML failed to devise a viable organizational structure and ideology after their death. Furthermore, the failure to evolve consensus in the party ranks on such constitutional issues as the form of federalism, the place of Islam in the constitution and the language issue created conflicting factions in the party. The solutions that it worked out of these problems further aggravated factionalism resulting in desertions or expulsions from the party. The Muslim League suffered a humiliating defeat in East Pakistan in March 1954, at the hands of a United Front that was set up by parties founded by former Muslim Leaguers. The PML did succeed in framing the first Constitution of Pakistan in 1956, but within a few weeks of its promulgation, another group of League dissidents founded the Republican Party of Pakistan and dislodged the PML from power in West Pakistan. After this, except for a Muslim League Coalition Ministry at the Centre for about three months in 1957, the PML remained out of power till the promulgation of martial law (October 1958) by General Ayub Khan who banned the political parties.

 

After the lifting of martial law and revival of parties under the Political Parties Act in 1962, Ayub Khan encouraged his supporters to revive the PML and subsequently he was elected its President. Those Leaguers opposed to him also formed a party bearing the same name. These two parties were referred to as the Convention ML and Council ML; the latter party led the opposition to Ayub Khan and actively participated in the alliances of opposition parties that were formed during his time. The two MLs enjoyed support both in East Pakistan and West Pakistan but they hardly made any serious overtures to each other for unity. Toward the end of Ayub Khan Era, Qayyum Khan who had been president of the PML at the time of military takeover formed his own Muslim League. All the three MLs enjoyed support throughout the country. After Ayub Khan’s downfall, several attempts were made to unite them. But the mutual hostility of their leaders and their desire to head their own parties rather than be part of a united party frustrated every attempt at unity. In the 1970 general elections, they campaigned against one another. The resulting bitterness frustrated the lower rank leaders and workers. Many of them in frustration joined other parties or became inactive in politics. The candidates of these parties neutralized the prospects of one another’s victory. The election results would have been different had they closed their ranks and forged unity even at a late stage. With the number of seats they won, they could not play any significant role in the crisis that developed after the elections. As a result, they helplessly watched the civil war and the dismemberment of the country.

 

Phase Three (1971-2002): After the break-up of Pakistan , the Muslim League led by Qayyum Khan allied with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) that assumed power in (West) Pakistan . By 1973, the other two Muslim Leagues had merged into one party and elected Pir of Pagaro as the president. The PPP policies to control and suppress the opposition forced the PML (Pagaro Group) to join hands with the other opposition parties to form an alliance, the United Democratic Front (UDF), to oppose these policies. Subsequently, it formed an electoral alliance in cooperation with the other opposition parties, which was called the Pakistan National Alliance (PNA). This alliance contested the March 1977 elections against the PPP candidates. The PNA launched a countrywide popular movement in protest against the massive rigging in these elections. The PPP’s delaying tactics in the negotiations with the PNA and the resultant deadlock led to another military takeover.

Pir of Pagaro cooperated with General Ziaul Haq’s Martial Law regime while a small group of Muslim Leaguers led by Khwaja Khairuddin joined the opposition alliance, the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD). When Ziaul Haq held non-party elections in 1985, a majority of the Muslim Leaguers were elected in their individual capacity. Ziaul Haq nominated Mohammad Khan Junejo as the Prime Minister. Junejo revived the PML and was elected its president. A serious attempt was made to organise the party at the grassroots. But in mid-1988, Ziaul Haq dismissed Prime Minister Junejo. The PML was again split into two factions, the PML (Junejo Group) and PML (Fida Mohammad Group). The latter faction was supported by the then Punjab Chief Minister, Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif, who was subsequently elected its President. This faction was then referred to as PML (N).

During 1988-1999, two political parties, the PPP under the leadership of Benazir Bhutto and the PML (N), wielded power in Pakistan. Each of the two parties was voted into office twice. But they did not let each other complete their terms in office. Once one was voted into office the other would immediately launch a campaign to dislodge it from power. There were no principles involved in this tussle. They would use every tactic and every institution including the Armed Forces against each other. Their mutual hostility hindered the development of a viable political system. The instability and uncertainty that this conflict created affected every institution and blocked economic development. The hope and expectations that the PML (N) landslide victory in the 1997 elections had generated were frustrated when in 1999 all the opposition parties united on a one-point agenda, removal of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from office. The military takeover was a natural consequence of this trend. The Supreme Court gave General Pervez Musharraf three years to hold general elections. The elections were held on time in October 2002, in which the PML emerged as a majority party.

The PML has entered a new phase of its history. It aspires to promote a culture of reconciliation and accommodation in politics. It has launched a massive campaign to organize itself at the grassroots. It plans to introduce reforms in the social, economic and other sectors of the society in order to bring about a real change in the life of the common man.

 

Preamble PML Constitution

WHEREAS, at the turn of this century as the Muslims of India stood economically impoverished, politically isolated, disorganized, and demoralized, a well meaning group of Muslim leaders assembled in Dacca on 30th December. 1906 and decided “that a political Association be formed styled All India Muslim League”;

 WHEREAS, the Muslim League adopted its definite ideology and creed in 1912 and defined its aims and objectives as under:-

 

  • Full responsible government of India with adequate and effective safeguards for Muslims.

 

  • To protect and advance the political, religious and other rights and interests of Muslim India.

 

  • To promote friendship and Union between the Muslims and other communities of India.

 

  • To maintain and strengthen brotherly relations between the Muslims of India and those of other countries.

WHEREAS, in 1936 when the federal scheme of government enshrined in the Government of India Act of 1935 threatened the vital interests of Indian Muslims, the Muslim league under the dynamic leadership of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah was transformed into an effective political vehicle for aspirations of Muslim India.

WHEREAS, the historic resolution of 1940 and the emergence of an independent state, 7 years later is a testimony to the resolve and resilience of the party as well as the calibre and dedication of its leadership;

WHEREAS, after partition of India and the creation of Pakistan, the Council of All India Muslim League in its last meeting held in Karachi December 14-15, 1947 resolved;

 ”The Council now calls upon Muslims of Pakistan and all other loyal citizens of the state to work for an ideal democratic state based on social justice as an upholder of human freedom and world peace in which all its citizens will enjoy equal rights and be free from want and ignorance”.

WHEREAS, it further resolved:

 

  • That in place of the All-India Muslim league there shall be separate Muslim league organizations for Pakistan and the Indian Union.

 

  • That all members of the Council of the All-India Muslim League for the time being who have become ordinarily residents of the territories comprised by Pakistan, or have settled therein, and all Muslim members of the Pakistan Constituent Assembly who are primary members of the Muslim League do hereby constitute the Council of Pakistan Muslim League”

WHEREAS, gradual political decline of Pakistan Muslim League unleashed undemocratic forces in the country resulting in repeated imposition of Marital Law, political moral and economic stagnation and ultimately disintegration of the country;

WHEREAS, upon lifting of restriction on political association in 1985, men and women dedicated to the ideals for which Pakistan was achieved undertook to rekindle the ideas and ideals of Quaid-e-Azam and his worthy colleagues and re-established the Pakistan Muslim League;

WHEREAS, rapid popularity of Pakistan Muslim League in successive elections and resurgence of popular support for its ideals has now made it the largest political party of the country;

NOW THEREFORE, we the inheritors of the traditions of Muslim League and its Political ideals, through the Council of Pakistan Muslim League, recommit ourselves through this Constitution which is reflective of our desire to realize the dreams of our forefathers and make Pakistan an ideal Islamic democratic state based on social justice, as an upholder of human freedom and world peace, in which all citizens will enjoy equal rights and be free from want, ignorance and fear.