Pakistan People's Party

| headquarters = Parliament House, Red Zone, Islamabad

| international = Socialist International

| affiliation1_title = Caucuses

| affiliation1 = Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians

| national = PDM

| website = Official website

| country = Pakistan

| native_name =

| flag = 200px

| founded = 30 November 1967 ()

| founders = Zulfikar Ali Bhutto J. A. Rahim

| student_wing = Peoples Students Federation

| youth_wing = Peoples Youth Organization

| position =

| colors = Red, Black, Green

| slogan = روٹی، کپڑا اور مکان Roti, Kapra aur Makaan ('Bread, Clothes, and a House')

چنو نئی سوچ کو Chuno Nai Soch Ko ('Elect New Thinking')

| seats1_title = Senate

| seats1 =

| seats2_title = National Assembly

| seats2 =

| seats7_title = Provincial Assembly of Punjab

| seats7 =

| seats4_title = Provincial Assembly of Balochistan

| seats4 =

| seats8_title = Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

| seats8 =

| seats3_title = Provincial Assembly of Sindh

| seats3 =

| seats6_title = Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly

| seats6 = Assembly dissolved

| seats5_title = Azad Kashmir Legislative Assembly

| seats5 =

| symbol = Arrow 100px|center|Arrow

The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) is a social democratic political party in Pakistan. It is one of the three major mainstream political parties alongside the Pakistan Muslim League (N) and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. It currently holds the most seats in the Senate, and second-most in the National Assembly; alongside leading a majoritarian government in Sindh and a coalition government in Balochistan.

Founded in 1967 in Lahore, when a number of prominent left-wing politicians in the country joined hands against the presidency of Ayub Khan, under the leadership of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. It is a member of the Socialist International. The PPP's platform is social democratic, liberal-progressive, and its stated priorities continue to include transforming Pakistan into a social-democratic state, promoting social liberal values, establishing social justice, and maintaining a strong military. Although, its power of center lies in Sindh In foreign policy, the party supports liberal internationalism while advocating for stronger ties with the United Kingdom, China, and Russia.

History

Foundation

On 30 November 1967, Meraj Muhammad, a devoted communist, was able to gather left-wing leaders in the residency of Dr. Mubashir Hassan in Lahore, Punjab, that included, J. A. Rahim, Ghulam Mustafa, A. H. Pirzada, Hayat Sherpao, and S. M. Rashid who became the founding members of the party, and announced it's establishment on 1 December 1967. The convention elected Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as its first chairman when the latter was unable to challenge the leadership of the National Awami Party (NAP) from Wali Khan in 1966.

Although several of the party's founders and early supporters were drawn from Marxist and progressive circles, cultural critic Nadeem Paracha argues that the ideological orientation that came to define the PPP was shaped primarily by proponents of Islamic socialism. This current was articulated and popularized by Safdar Mir and Hanif Ramay, who was influenced by local thinkers such as Ghulam Ahmed Perwez and Khalifa Abdul Hakim as well Michel Aflaq of the Ba'ath Party in the Arab world, in a series of articles published in the Urdu literary magazine Nusrat, which presented socialism as compatible with Islamic conceptions of social justice. In these writings, Islamic socialism was defined in programmatic terms to include the abolition of feudal structures, the curbing of unregulated capitalism in favor of a regulated mixed economy, the nationalization of major banks, industries, and educational institutions, the promotion of workers' participation in management, and the strengthening of democratic institutions. These policies were framed as a modern reinterpretation of egalitarian principles associated with early Islamic governance in Mecca and Medina and with Qur'anic injunctions on social justice. Although the party's initial manifesto, drafted by J. A. Rahim, was widely characterized at the time as Marxist in tone, the leadership increasingly emphasized this Islamic socialist framework, thereby distinguishing the PPP from explicitly Marxist movements and embedding its socio-economic programme within an Islamic idiom aimed at broader popular appeal.

Left-wing activism and populism

Despite controversially winning the presidential elections held in 1965, President Ayub Khan was widely disapproved for his economic policies that many saw as the distribution of wealth to the capitalist elite at the expense of ordinary people, evidenced by the drastic increase in income inequality and poverty. The economy suffered when Ayub Khan's administration entered in the war with India in 1965 which ended up in a compromise facilitated by the former Soviet Union. In public circles, the ceasefire was widely disapproved with foreign minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto going on to accuse Ayub Khan of "losing the war on the negotiating table", which led to his dismissal by Ayub Khan while he fiercely defended the peace agreement and called it in the best interest of the people.

Massive protests and strikes ensued against Ayub Khan, who responded by outlawing the political gatherings in the country. On 5 February 1966, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman announced his program of regional autonomy for East Bengal at a news conference. In 1968, Ayub Khan celebrated his government's "Decade of Development" which was widely disapproved of when the demonstrations erupted all over the country. In the same year, spontaneous students' movements erupted throughout the country, largely due to unemployment and economic hardship which saw the beginning of the student movements in the country. AT the same time, ideological differences emerged within the NAP, which led to a major split between the pro-Russian and pro-Chinese factions. The pro-Russian faction, led by Wali Khan in West, proposed a parliamentary route to power, whereas the pro-Chinese faction led by Moulana Bhashani in East advocated for a peasant revolution to overthrow Khan's administration. <blockquote>

Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, being shrewder in sensing the mood of the mass movement, had embarked upon the 'need for socialism' and other radical slogans. This PPP programme connected with the masses' moods, aspirations and sentiments; the PPP became the largest party of the masses in the history of Pakistan, almost overnight. The first activists and cadres who gave the PPP a foothold and standing were from the different Maoist groups and other scattered left activists. These groups were disillusioned and frustrated by the traditional Stalinist leadership of the left. The program directly targeted the country's poverty-stricken masses in rural areas with the left-wing oriented slogans "Land to the Landless" proved to be popular amongst the peasants and workforce, as the party promised not only to abolish the feudalism, but also to redistribute land.

The massive demonstration and public protests eventually led Ayub Khan to resign from the presidency on 25 March 1969 by inviting his army commander General Yahya Khan to take-over the government. In response, the Peoples Party decided to hold its national conference that was held in Hala, Sindh between 1–3 July 1970. At this conference, there were two different opinions on participating in the upcoming general election with some hardliners arguing for boycotting the elections but rather adopt methods of revolutionary insurrection to take power, whereas others emphasized the importance of partaking in parliamentary democracy.

thumb|250px|right|The ECP data showing results in the general elections held in 1970.

On 4 January 1970, Bhutto officially launched his electoral campaign by addressing a public meeting at Nishtar Park in Karachi and then leading a campaign in Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi and public speaking in parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The party published its ideology in newspapers such as Nusrat, Fatah, and Mussawat. The results of the general elections in 1970 showed that the Peoples Party won most of the seats in the four provinces shared together with the pro-Russian National Awami Party (NAP) and the conservative Pakistan Muslim League. The Peoples Party, in east, struggled to appeal its political narrative due to strong ethnic sentiments and against the identity politics led by the Awami League, which also failed to make any breakthrough or win any seats in western four provinces.

The Pakistan Peoples Party questioned the results and contested Awami League's mandate to form the central government as Awami League had failed to win won a single seat. To break the impasse, Bhutto proposed the continuation of the One Unit program, with two separate prime ministers for governing the wings.

Post-war politics and reconstruction

thumb|right|[[Sword remained the iconic identity of PPP during 1970 to 1977|90px]]

The news of Yahya administration conceding to the surrender after Indian invasion in east sparked the spontaneous protests against the military and President Yahya Khan who ultimately resigned and handed over the control of the administration to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on 20 December 1971. The party assumed the control what remained of Pakistan— the nation was completely isolated, angered, and demoralized. On 2 January 1972, the People's Party announced a policy measure program of nationalization of industrial sector, including iron and steel, heavy engineering firms, petrochemicals, cement and public utilities. A new labor policy was announced increasing the power of trade unions. In 1972, the People's Party had to address the labor unrest when the steel workers intensified their demands and the whole country engulfed with periodic lockouts and encirclement of industries. Among them notable struggles were the emergence of a worker-led court under Abdur Rehman in Kot Lakhpat.

In 1973, the People's Party spearheaded the writings and the framework of the Constitution that placed the country's political structure towards the parliamentary democracy.

On 10 April 1973, the People's Party spearheaded the efforts to promulgated the Constitution which was approved by the National Assembly and the Senate, and it came into effect from 14 August 1973, the day Bhutto elected as the Prime Minister of Pakistan. The People's Party initiated education reforms that expanded the school network to slums and small villages, creating basic health facilities, land reforms and housing schemes. However, these programs were affected by the global recession, fueled by the oil crises, and the failure of reforms resulted into rising inflation in 1974. Dr Mubashar Hassan, then-finance minister under Bhutto's administration wrote in a note to core of the leadership of the People's Party: <blockquote>"We have been in office for more than six months. Many decisions have been taken but a growing implementation gap is becoming visible. Once the implementation gap sets in, the decline begins. We came to abolish the abominable status quo but the status quo is very much present..."

In 1975–76, the serious issues began to emerge within the party's ranks, when Bhutto decided to utilize the state machinery to keep an eye on the activities of the Pakistan National Alliance– a rightwing conservative alliance led by the Pakistan Muslim League. The People's Party direction was geared towards centre-left when leftwing intellectuals – such as Malik Meraj Khalid, a law minister under Bhutto's administration, Mubashir Hassan, finance minister in Bhutto's administration– were asked to resign from their respective assignments. In 1976, the People's Party supported the authorization of the military operation in the Balochistan and dismissed the key ally, the National Awami Party, government by imposing the governor's rule in the province as a wider policy to fight against the feudalism in the province. Massive demonstration and protests broke out in the conservative strongholds of the country that forced the party to negotiate with the opposition and offered to hold another set of elections, also in 1977. although, in 1974, he had banned alcohol. Any attempts by the party to settle the issue with the opposition failed which led to General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, the army chief at that time, imposed a martial law to ensure security in the country in 1977.

From 1979 to 1988, the People's Party was a target of the various counterintelligence operations and was a proponent of organizing and leading the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD) under its elected chairperson Benazir Bhutto. The issues relating to the economic recession, national security, industrial nationalization, and administration guidance that differs from the President Ishaq Khan, eventually led to the dismissal of the People's Party's government in 1990.

In 1993, the People's Party secured the majority in the general election, forming an unusual coalition with fundamentalist JUI(F) and the Awami National Party (ANP). The party dominated the two-party system facing the rival Pakistan Muslim League (N) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf on a conservative and status quo platform. The party under Benazir Bhutto faced the issues relating to the economic recession, war in Afghanistan on the western front, and identity politics in Karachi, Sindh. The party also suffered with internal factions mainly in three parliamentary groups: the Bhuttoists, the Parliamentarians and the Sherpaoists, with Bhuttoism becoming the most influential and powerful in Sindh and Balochistan.

The assassination of Bhutto in a police shootout damaged the credibility of the party in its stronghold and was later dismissed by dismissed by the party's own elected President Farooq Leghari in September 1996. From 1996 to 2006, the People's Party worked on strengthening its vote bank in the rural areas of Sindh and eventually reached an understanding with the Pakistan Muslim League(N) in leading the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) that effectively opposed the military-backed government of President Pervez Musharraf.

According to The Economist in 2017, the party "has become irrelevant outside their home province of Sindh."

Electoral history

National Assembly elections

{|class="wikitable"

!Election

!Leader

!Votes

!Seats

!+/–

!Result

|1970

| rowspan="2" |Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

|6,148,923

|18.63%

|New

|1977

|10,093,868

|59.74%

| 85

|1985

|Nusrat Bhutto

|–

|Non-participant

|–

|1988

| rowspan="4" |Benazir Bhutto

|7,546,561

|37.66%

| 93

|1990

|7,796,238

|36.02%

| 49

|1993

|7,578,635

|37.00%

| 45

|1997

|4,152,209

|21.29%

| 71

|2002

|Ameen Faheem

|7,616,033

|26.05%

| 61

|2008

|Benazir Bhutto (assassinated whilst campaigning) Asif Ali Zardari

|10,666,548

|30.77%

| 37

|2013

|Asif Ali Zardari

|6,911,218

|15.23%

| 74

| rowspan="2" |2018

| rowspan="2" |Bilawal Bhutto Zardari

| rowspan="2" |6,924,356

| rowspan="2" |13.03%

| rowspan="2" |

| rowspan="2" | 12

|2024

|Bilawal Bhutto Zardari

|8,244,944

|13.92%

| 14

Senate of Pakistan Elections

{| class="wikitable"

!Election!! Party chairperson !!Votes!!%!!Seats

!+/–!!Government

|2006||Ameen Faheem||-|| - ||

|-||

|2009|| rowspan="3" |Asif Ali Zardari||-|| - ||

|22||

|2012||-|| - ||

|14||

|2015|| -||- ||

| 14||

|2018|| rowspan="2" |Bilawal Bhutto Zardari|| -|| - ||

| 6||

|2021|| - || - ||

| -||

Sindh Assembly elections

{|class="wikitable"

!Election

!Party chairperson

!Votes

!Seats

!+/–

!Government

|2002

|Ameen Faheem

|2,115,472

|35.05%

| -

|2008

|Benazir Bhutto (assassinated whilst campaigning) Asif Ali Zardari

|3,597,275

|41.94%

| 25

|2013

|Asif Ali Zardari

|3,209,686

|32.63%

| 1

|2018

| rowspan="2" |Bilawal Bhutto Zardari

|3,853,081

|40.03%

| 8

|2024

|5,228,678

|46.11%

| 16

Punjab Assembly elections

{|class="wikitable"

!Election

!Party chairperson

!Votes

!Seats

!+/–

!Government

|2002

|Ameen Faheem

| 4,145,106

| 22.48%

|−

|2008

|Benazir Bhutto (assassinated whilst campaigning) Asif Ali Zardari

|5,565,743

|26.89%

| 24

| *

Later

|2013

|Asif Ali Zardari

|2,464,812

|8.84%

| 99

|2018

|Bilawal Bhutto Zardari

| 1,781,330

| 5.38%

| 1

|2024

|Bilawal Bhutto Zardari

| TBD

| 10

! colspan="7" |

In the 2008 elections, the PML (N) and the PPP formed a coalition government, with PML (N) as the senior party and Shehbaz Sharif as Chief Minister of Punjab. However, in 2011, the PPP was expelled from this coalition due to corruption allegations.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly elections

{|class="wikitable"

!Election

!Party chairperson

!Votes

!Seats

!+/–

!Government

|2002 (NWFP)

|Ameen Faheem

| 270,468

| 9%

| 8

|2008 (NWFP)

|Benazir Bhutto (assassinated whilst campaigning) Asif Ali Zardari

|563,057

|16.49%

| 9

|2013

|Asif Ali Zardari

|473,358

|8.82%

| 14

|2018

|Bilawal Bhutto Zardari

| 596,816

| 9.04%

|−

|2024

|Bilawal Bhutto Zardari

| TBD

| 8

Azad Kashmir Legislative Assembly Elections

{| class="wikitable"

!Election!! Party Chairperson !!Votes!!%!!Seats

!+/–!!Government

|2011|| rowspan="2" |Asif Ali Zardari|| - || - ||

| - ||

|2016|| 352,742 || 21.2% ||

| 18||

|2021||Bilawal Bhutto Zardari|| 349,895|| 18.28% ||

| 8 ||

Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly Elections

{| class="wikitable"

!Election!! Party Chairperson !!Votes!!%!!Seats

!+/–!!Government

|2009|| rowspan="2" |Asif Ali Zardari|| 72,851 || 33.08% ||

| 20 ||

|2015|| 69,216 || 18.26% ||

| 19||

|2020||Bilawal Bhutto Zardari|| - || - ||

| 4||

Notable leadership

The first socialist and democratic convention attended by the leading 67 left-wing intellectuals who appointed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as the first and founding chair of the Pakistan Peoples Party. After his execution, the senior party leadership handed over the chairmanship of the party to his wife, Nusrat Bhutto, and held the position into the 1980s. In 1982, Nusrat Bhutto, ill with cancer, was given permission to leave Pakistan for medical treatment and remained abroad for several years. At that point her daughter, Benazir Bhutto, became acting head of the party while Nusrat technically remained its chairman By January 1984, Benazir was being referred to as the party's chairman and subsequently secured the legal appointment by the senior leadership of Central Executive Committee at the convention held in 1984. She had been elected chairperson for life, which she remained until her assassination on 27 December 2007. Her nineteen-year-old son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and his father Asif Ali Zardari were appointed party co-chairmen after assassination of Benazir Bhutto on 30 December 2007.

List of party's presidents

{|class="sortable wikitable"

!No.

!Presidents

!Year

!Duration

!Presidential elections

|-style="vertical-align: middle; text-align: center;"

|Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

|1971–1973

|1 year, 7 months, 25 days

|20 December 1971

|-style="vertical-align: middle; text-align: center;"

|Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry

|1973–1978

|5 years, 1 month, 3 days

|14 August 1973

|-style="vertical-align: middle; text-align: center;"

|Farooq Leghari

|1993–1997

|4 years, 1 month, 19 days

|14 November 1993

|-style="vertical-align: middle; text-align: center;"

|rowspan=2|4

|rowspan=2|Asif Ali Zardari

|2008–2013

|5 years

|6 September 2008

|-style="vertical-align: middle; text-align: center;"

|2024–

|Incumbent

|9 March 2024

|-style="vertical-align: middle; text-align: center;"

List of party's prime ministers

{|class="sortable wikitable"

!No.

!Prime ministers

!Year

!Duration

!Elections

|-style="vertical-align: middle; text-align: center;"

|Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

|1973–1977

|3 years, 10 months, 21 days

|–

|-style="vertical-align: middle; text-align: center;"

|Benazir Bhutto

|1988–1990; 1993–1996

|4 years, 8 months, 21 days

|1988, 1993

|-style="vertical-align: middle; text-align: center;"

|Yousaf Raza Gillani

|2008–2012

|4 years, 2 months, 25 days

|2008

|-style="vertical-align: middle; text-align: center;"

|Raja Pervaiz Ashraf

|2012–2013

|9 months, 2 days,

|–

Current structure and composition

The Central Executive Committee of the Pakistan Peoples Party of Pakistan serves as party's highest leadership, and apex governing authority, and is primarily responsible for promoting Peoples Party activities, promotion, media campaigning, welfare distribution, public policy and works. The CEC is the supreme parliamentary body in charge of setting out strategies and positions during and after elections. The CEC is currently chaired by Asif Ali Zardari,

Nationally, each province and territory has a provisional committee, made up of elected committee members as well as ex-officio committee members who elect its presidents. The local committees often coordinate campaign activities within their jurisdiction, oversee local conventions, and in some cases primaries or caucuses, and may have a role in nominating candidates for elected office under state law. All administration, campaign, and party policies required complete permission from the CEC's co-chairman and the vice-chairmen.

Ideology

In its inception, the notable communists from the Communist Party and socialists of the defunct Socialist Party gathered to form the Peoples Party in 1967 by electing Zulfikar Ali Bhutto its first chairman.

Since then, the Peoples Party has been a leading proponent of democratic socialism with the mainstream agenda of social democracy, favouring semi-secular and semi-Islamic socialist principles. Historically, the Peoples Party favoured financially stable farmers, industrial labour unions and the middle-class. The Peoples Party rejected far-left politics and ultra-leftism, supporting unregulated business and finance, and laissez-faire capitalism, after which it was no longer widely viewed as a socialist or social-democratic party, as its economic policies swung dramatically to the right-wing, embracing economic neoliberalism and unfettered capitalism and privatisation of publicly owned institutions, favouring partial income taxes. Under Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Pakistan built closer ties with Soviet Union, China, and Iran, but under Benazir Bhutto, the foreign policy was revised after taking shifts to centre-right policies. Earlier in the 1970s, the Peoples Party faced a "secret" cold war with the United States, but then suffered a US-backed coup in 1977. She also adopted Nawaz Sharif's conservative privatisation policies in order to secure funding from the United States and the World Bank, but received a harsh opposition from within the party. Throughout the 1980s, the party's credibility was damaged by the United States who "keenly sabotaged" any of its efforts and organizational establishment in the dense areas of country. Although PPP leader Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said he did not want to choose one side in the 21st century China-US strategic competition, Hina Rabbani Khar argues that the instinct to preserve Pakistan's partnership with the United States would ultimately sacrifice the full benefits of the country's "real strategic" partnership with China.

Academia

The Pakistan Peoples Party through Zulfikar Ali Bhutto proudly receives all credit for launching the atomic bomb project in 1972, public ceremonies are held on Youm-e-Takbir () to commemorate the political services of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who established the program.

In 1976, Murtaza Bhutto graduated from Harvard University, Bhutto graduated with his thesis entitled "Modicum of Harmony". His thesis dealt with the spread of nuclear weapons in general, and the implications of India's nuclear weapons on Pakistan in particular. Murtaza went on to Christ Church, Oxford, his father's alma mater, for a three-year course to read for an MLit degree. Bhutto submitted his master thesis, containing a vast argumentative work on Nuclear strategic studies, where he advocated for Pakistan's approach to develop its nuclear deterrence program to counter Indian nuclear program.

Since its establishment, the Peoples Party has produced prolific scientists-turned technocrats, including Farhatullah Babar, Mubashir Hassan, and the senior academic scientists who played a role in building the atomic bomb. The Peoples Party member's notably provided their public support to Abdul Qadeer Khan who had been forced to attend the military debriefings by General Pervez Musharraf in 2004.

In 1995–1996, the Peoples Party under Benazir Bhutto's era opened computer literacy centres to provide the public with access to computers and technology. In 1990, they made Pakistan the first Muslim country to launch a satellite, Badr-I. They are also responsible for establishing, nurturing, and funding the missile's programs, such as Ghauri and Shaheen in the 1990s. As part of the science policy, they established the Pakistan Science Foundation in 1973 and helped establish the Pakistan Academy of Letters in 1976. In 1996, Benazir Bhutto established SZABIST at Karachi to become a leading institution of science and technology and appointed academic Dr. Javaid Laghari as its first president, who later was also elected Senator from Sindh on a technocrat seat and eventually Chairman HEC leading a revolution of reforms in higher education in South Asia.

Ideology and platform

PPP's stated objectives include:

Ensuring merit-based representation of marginalized regions and communities.
Enacting legal and electoral reforms, such as joined the politicians from contesting multiple seat the elections.
Implementing public welfare programs on organization, women, farmers, clean drinking water, clean road, transport, and healthcare.

Challenges and controversies

"Losing the left" and post-secularism

Since the 1990s, the Peoples Party has been under intense criticism, both from its own members and the other leftists in the country, notably due to the charges of large-scale corruptions. The leading leftist, Nadeem Paracha, has asserted that since 1977, the Peoples Party's manifesto has been transformed into a centre-right platform, despite that during the 1977 parliamentary elections, the Peoples Party's manifesto did not mention socialism. During the 1973–75, the Peoples Party's radical ultra-left and communist wings led by Mirage Khalid and the Maoist wings under Khalid Syed were purged by the Peoples Party to ensure the political support of the powerful Sindh's feudal lords and Punjab's landed elite, with Paracha claiming the Peoples Party has "lost the left". firstly citing its support of declaring Ahmadiyya community as non-Muslims through the second constitutional amendment, secondly for banning the use of liquor,

Bhutto emphasized on his last part of the speech: "I will take back Kashmir, all of it, and I will not leave behind a single inch of it because like the other provinces, it belongs to Pakistan. He pledged to continue supporting Kashmiri freedom struggle morally and diplomatically...(.)".

Internal opposition and factionalism

Since the 1990s, the factionalism has grown in the party when Murtaza Bhutto returned to Pakistan. Confrontation with Benazir Bhutto in 1999 over the party guidance, Aftab Sherpao splits from the party and forming the Pakistan Peoples Party (Sherpaoist)—a more reformist with libertarian agenda.

Factionalism continued in 2011 when PPP sacked Mahmood Qureshi over the Raymond Davis incident in Lahore. Qureshi later defected to PTI. Another leftist leader, Malik Ali Khan also resigned from the Peoples Party, saying that he "did not agree with how President Zardari was leading the party particularly with regards to an alliance with centre-right PML (Q) and the foreign policy."

In 2012, the PPP's powerful leader, Zulfiqar Mirza, quit from the party despite urgings amidst disagreement with Asif Zardari's leadership and policies with regards to dealings with the liberal MQM in Sindh. Reasoning with their isolation, the socialist politicians felt that the party had now moved away from the original ideas it was founded on by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1967. In 2014, Labour leader, Safdar Ali Abbasi, formed the Workers faction amid disagreement with party's fiscal policy.

Defection in PPP: The launch of Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarian-Patriots (PPPPP)

The Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarian-Patriots (PPPPP) was launched in Lahore in the year 2002 as a 'forward bloc' that broke away from the PPP to back the Pakistan Muslim League Quaid-e-Azam (PML-Q) transforming itself into Pakistan's newest party at that time. The leader of the rebel group was Faisal Saleh Hayat. In January 2017, Former federal minister Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat joined the Pakistan Peoples Party on Monday, more than 14 years after being elected on the PPP ticket in 2002, bringing an end to the PPPPP.

Explanatory notes

References

External links

Pakistan Peoples Party Pakistan based Web site
Pakistan Peoples Party USA official site
The Pakistan Peoples Party, Radio France Internationale (in English)
A detailed Web site on the life of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
2008 Election dossier, Radio France Internationale (in English)

Pakistan People's Party

History

Foundation

Left-wing activism and populism

Post-war politics and reconstruction

Electoral history

National Assembly elections

Senate of Pakistan Elections

Sindh Assembly elections

Punjab Assembly elections

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly elections

Azad Kashmir Legislative Assembly Elections

Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly Elections

Notable leadership

List of party's presidents

List of party's prime ministers

Current structure and composition

Ideology

Academia

Ideology and platform

Challenges and controversies

"Losing the left" and post-secularism

Internal opposition and factionalism

Defection in PPP: The launch of Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarian-Patriots (PPPPP)

See also

Explanatory notes

References

Further reading

External links