National Peoples Party
Encyclopedia
The National Peoples Party (NPP) is a political party
in Pakistan
most active in the province of Sindh
and southern parts of Punjab
. It was founded in 1986 by Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi
after falling out with Benazir Bhutto
and leaving her Pakistan Peoples Party
.
In the 2008 Pakistani general elections
the party managed to win only one seat in the National Assembly
. Ghulam Mustafa's son Ghulam Murtaza Khan Jatoi won election in NA-211 Naushahro Feroze
-I, holding the seat won in 2002 elections by Dr. Abdul Ghaffar Khan Jatoi under the National Alliance
banner. The party also won 3 provincial seats, all in the Sindh province.
, former federal ministers S.M. Zafar
and Hamid Raza Gilani
, Malik Hamid Sarfraz, Nawab Ghaus Bux Raisani, Kamal Azfar, Mian Sajid Pervaiz, Nafees Siddiqui, Rana Muhammad Hanif Khan, Akhtar Hussain Shah, Rabbani Khar and Aftab Shah Gilani. An attractive manifesto was prepared and the party was expected to shoot into prominence in no time due to the declining popularity of the Peoples Party at the time.
headed by Muhammad Khan Junejo
, and the religio-political Jamaat-e-Islami
headed by Qazi Hussain Ahmad
along with six other political parties formed an anti-PPP coalition called Islami Jamhoori Ittehad
or simply IJI. It was believed that Pakistan Army
's intelligence agency, the ISI
, under Lt Gen Hamid Gul, had a major role in the formation of IJI, as the army was always at odds with the left-leaning PPP.
The 1988 elections were still won by PPP but with a thin majority. However, only 20 months into office, the PPP government was dismissed by then President Ghulam Ishaq Khan
on corruption charges, and IJI won the next elections comfortably leading Nawaz Sharif
from IJI to be the next Prime Minister. The coalition ended in 1993, when major chunk of IJI became PML (Nawaz).
, NPP joined the pro-Musharraf government's loose political coalition, the National Alliance
. The other alliance members were Millat Party
, Sindh Democratic Alliance
and Sindh National Front
. The alliance won 16 out of 342 seats, mainly in the interior Sindh and lower Punjab region, or 4.78% of the total votes.
The party won three seats in the 2008 elections in the Sindh Provincial Assembly and 1 National Assembly seat. an additional National and one Provincial Assembly seat is disputed and a election petition is pending in the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
The Party is also represented in the Senate of Pakistan
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
in Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
most active in the province of Sindh
Sindh
Sindh historically referred to as Ba'ab-ul-Islam , is one of the four provinces of Pakistan and historically is home to the Sindhi people. It is also locally known as the "Mehran". Though Muslims form the largest religious group in Sindh, a good number of Christians, Zoroastrians and Hindus can...
and southern parts of Punjab
Punjab (Pakistan)
Punjab is the most populous province of Pakistan, with approximately 45% of the country's total population. Forming most of the Punjab region, the province is bordered by Kashmir to the north-east, the Indian states of Punjab and Rajasthan to the east, the Pakistani province of Sindh to the...
. It was founded in 1986 by Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi
Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi
Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi was a Pakistani politician, and was the Acting Prime Minister of Pakistan for 3 months, from August 6, 1990 to November 6, 1990. Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi's ancestors were mureeds of the Pir's of Sarhandi....
after falling out with Benazir Bhutto
Benazir Bhutto
Benazir Bhutto was a democratic socialist who served as the 11th Prime Minister of Pakistan in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996....
and leaving her Pakistan Peoples Party
Pakistan Peoples Party
The Pakistan Peoples Party , is a democratic socialist political party in Pakistan affiliated with Socialist International. Pakistan People's Party is the largest political party of Pakistan...
.
In the 2008 Pakistani general elections
Pakistani general election, 2008
A general election was held in Pakistan on 18 February 2008, after being postponed from 8 January 2008. The original date was intended to elect members of the National Assembly of Pakistan, the lower house of the Majlis-e-Shoora...
the party managed to win only one seat in the National Assembly
National Assembly of Pakistan
The National Assembly of Pakistan is the lower house of the bicameral Majlis-e-Shura, which also compromises the President of Pakistan and Senate . The National Assembly and the Senate both convene at Parliament House in Islamabad...
. Ghulam Mustafa's son Ghulam Murtaza Khan Jatoi won election in NA-211 Naushahro Feroze
Naushahro Feroze
Naushahro Feroze , is town in Naushahro Feroze District, Sindh, Pakistan. Naushahro Feroze is the capital of Naushahro Feroze District. The district is located at 26°50'0N 68°7'0E with an altitude of 38 metres ....
-I, holding the seat won in 2002 elections by Dr. Abdul Ghaffar Khan Jatoi under the National Alliance
National Alliance (Pakistan)
The National Alliance was a coalition of Millat Party, Sindh Democratic Alliance, National Peoples Party, and Sindh National Front in Pakistan. It was headed by former Pakistani Prime Minister Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, who was also the head of his own National Peoples Party .At the 2002 legislative...
banner. The party also won 3 provincial seats, all in the Sindh province.
Formation
When the party was founded in 1986, Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi brought a number of political heavyweights from all over the country under the National Peoples Party banner. Among them were former PPP stalwarts and Punjab Chief Ministers Ghulam Mustafa Khar and Hanif RamayHanif Ramay
Muhammad Hanif Ramay was an internationally renowned intellectual, journalist and former Governor and Chief Minister of Punjab, and he was among the founding fathers of the Pakistan Peoples Party .He was also speaker of Punjab Assembly from October 1993 to November 1996.-Early life and...
, former federal ministers S.M. Zafar
S.M. Zafar
S.M. Zafar, is a Pakistani human rights activist, noted lawyer , politician, and present Senator, PML-Q.-Career:Zafar began his career as a lawyer in the 1950s...
and Hamid Raza Gilani
Hamid Raza Gilani
Syed Hamid Raza Gilani, in keeping with his family's tradition, received his early education at Aitchison College, Lahore, Pakistan. Later he studied in England and was called to the Bar at Gray's Inn. He also studied at Oxford. Mr...
, Malik Hamid Sarfraz, Nawab Ghaus Bux Raisani, Kamal Azfar, Mian Sajid Pervaiz, Nafees Siddiqui, Rana Muhammad Hanif Khan, Akhtar Hussain Shah, Rabbani Khar and Aftab Shah Gilani. An attractive manifesto was prepared and the party was expected to shoot into prominence in no time due to the declining popularity of the Peoples Party at the time.
IJI Coalition
In September 1988, the newly-formed NPP, the center-right Pakistan Muslim LeaguePakistan Muslim League
The Pakistan Muslim League was founded in 1962, as a successor to the previously disbanded Muslim League in Pakistan. Unlike the original PML which ended in 1958 when General Ayub Khan banned all political parties, each subsequent Muslim League was in some way propped by the military dictators of...
headed by Muhammad Khan Junejo
Muhammad Khan Junejo
Muhammad Khan Junejo was the tenth Prime Minister of Pakistan.-Early life:He was born at Sindhri in Tharparkar of Sindh. He belongs to Sindhi Muslim Rajput family of Junejo clan. Junejo started his political career at the age of twenty one...
, and the religio-political Jamaat-e-Islami
Jamaat-e-Islami
This article is about Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan. For other organizations of similar name see Jamaat-e-Islami The Jamaat-e-Islami , is a Pro-Muslim political party in Pakistan...
headed by Qazi Hussain Ahmad
Qazi Hussain Ahmad
Qazi Hussain Ahmad was the third president of the Islamist political party Jamaat-e-Islami, a major political party in Pakistan...
along with six other political parties formed an anti-PPP coalition called Islami Jamhoori Ittehad
Islami Jamhoori Ittehad
Islami Jamhoori Ittehad or Islamic Democratic Alliance was formed in September 1988 to oppose the Pakistan Peoples Party in elections that year...
or simply IJI. It was believed that Pakistan Army
Pakistan Army
The Pakistan Army is the branch of the Pakistani Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. The Pakistan Army came into existence after the Partition of India and the resulting independence of Pakistan in 1947. It is currently headed by General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. The Pakistan...
's intelligence agency, the ISI
Inter-Services Intelligence
The Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence , is Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, responsible for providing critical national security intelligence assessment to the Government of Pakistan...
, under Lt Gen Hamid Gul, had a major role in the formation of IJI, as the army was always at odds with the left-leaning PPP.
The 1988 elections were still won by PPP but with a thin majority. However, only 20 months into office, the PPP government was dismissed by then President Ghulam Ishaq Khan
Ghulam Ishaq Khan
Ghulam Ishaq Khan , abbreviated as GIK, was the seventh President of Pakistan from August 17, 1988 until July 18, 1993 and a career statesman from the start to the end of cold war...
on corruption charges, and IJI won the next elections comfortably leading Nawaz Sharif
Nawaz Sharif
Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif is a Pakistani conservative politician and steel magnate who served as 12th Prime Minister of Pakistan in two non-consecutive terms from November 1990 to July 1993, and from February 1997 to October 12, 1999...
from IJI to be the next Prime Minister. The coalition ended in 1993, when major chunk of IJI became PML (Nawaz).
Founding National Alliance
For 2002 general electionsPakistani general election, 2002
General elections were held in Pakistan on 10 October 2002 during the military regime of Pervez Musharraf.-Parties and candidates:More than 70 parties, contested the election, the main parties were the Peoples Party Parliamentarians, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Group, Muttahida Quami Movement ,...
, NPP joined the pro-Musharraf government's loose political coalition, the National Alliance
National Alliance (Pakistan)
The National Alliance was a coalition of Millat Party, Sindh Democratic Alliance, National Peoples Party, and Sindh National Front in Pakistan. It was headed by former Pakistani Prime Minister Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, who was also the head of his own National Peoples Party .At the 2002 legislative...
. The other alliance members were Millat Party
Millat Party
The Millat Party was a political party in Pakistan, formed by Sardar Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari, former president of Pakistan, once he was no longer the president, and needed a platform to survive politically. He had the money to start a small-scale party. Because of his support to the...
, Sindh Democratic Alliance
Sindh Democratic Alliance
The Sindh Democratic Alliance was a regional political party in Pakistan. The party was created by the bureaucrat-turned-politician Imtiaz Shaikh in mid-2001. He was formerly a right-hand man of Jam Sadiq Ali, who was the Chief Minister of Sindh from 1990 to until he was murdered in 1992. At the...
and Sindh National Front
Sindh National Front
Sindh National Front is a political party in the province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is currently led by Mumtaz Bhutto, the cousin of Mr. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, ex-Prime Minister of Pakistan, who was hanged by the regime of Zia-ul-Haq....
. The alliance won 16 out of 342 seats, mainly in the interior Sindh and lower Punjab region, or 4.78% of the total votes.
Merger and separation with PML
In May 2004, various PML factions and other political parties including National Alliance merged with the PML-Q to form a united Pakistan Muslim League (PML). However, the understanding didn't last long and NPP disconnected from the ruling PML and contested the 2008 elections on a separate platform.The party won three seats in the 2008 elections in the Sindh Provincial Assembly and 1 National Assembly seat. an additional National and one Provincial Assembly seat is disputed and a election petition is pending in the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
See also
- List of political parties in Pakistan
- Pakistan Peoples PartyPakistan Peoples PartyThe Pakistan Peoples Party , is a democratic socialist political party in Pakistan affiliated with Socialist International. Pakistan People's Party is the largest political party of Pakistan...
- Politics of PakistanPolitics of PakistanPolitics of Pakistan have taken place in the framework of a federal republic, where the system of government has at times been parliamentary, presidential, or semi-presidential. In the current parliamentary system, the President of Pakistan is the largely ceremonial head of state, the Prime...
The Party is also represented in the Senate of Pakistan