The Awaam Pakistan (, , , AP) is a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

that was established in 2024 by former

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi Shahid Khaqan Abbasi (born 27 December 1958) is a Pakistani politician and businessman who served as the 18th prime minister of Pakistan, Prime Minister of Pakistan from August 2017 to May 2018. He also currently leads Awaam Pakistan (AP) as ...

and former

Minister of Finance A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfolio ...

Miftah Ismail, both of whom had left the

Pakistan Muslim League (N) The Pakistan Muslim League (N) or (PML(N)) is a Centre-right politics, centre-right, Conservatism in Pakistan, conservative political party in Pakistan. It is currently the third-largest party in the Senate of Pakistan, Senate and the larges ...

(PML-N). It was registered with the

Election Commission of Pakistan The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is an independent, autonomous, permanent and constitutionally established federal body responsible for organizing and conducting elections to the national parliament, provincial legislatures, local g ...

(ECP) on 9 January 2025. The formal launching ceremony of the party was held on 6 July 2024 in

Islamabad Islamabad (; , ; ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's tenth-most populous city with a population of over 1.1 million and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital Territory. Bu ...

Rawalpindi Rawalpindi is the List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, third-largest city in the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is a commercial and industrial hub, being the list of cities in P ...

, and

Karachi Karachi is the capital city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, largest city in Pakistan and 12th List of largest cities, largest in the world, with a popul ...

History

On 3 January 2023,

Maryam Nawaz Maryam Nawaz Sharif (born 28 October 1973) is a Pakistani politician who has served as the 20th chief minister of Punjab since 26 February 2024. She is the first woman to hold the position of chief minister in Pakistan. Born to former Prime ...

, daughter of

(PML-N) leader

Nawaz Sharif Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif (born 25 December 1949) is a Pakistani politician and businessman who served as the 12th Prime Minister of Pakistan, prime minister of Pakistan for three non-consecutive terms, first serving from 1990 to 1993, then ...

, was appointed as senior vice president of the PML-N, making her one of the PML-N's senior-most leaders. Numerous senior leaders within PML-N expressed regret and displeasure over the lack of consultation preceding Maryam's appointment, which positioned her as the second most senior figure in the party, following her leaving uncle

Shehbaz Sharif Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif (born 23 September 1951) is a Pakistani politician and businessman who has served as the 20th Prime Minister of Pakistan, prime minister of Pakistan since March 2024, having previously been in the role between Ap ...

. Within an hour of the announcement of Maryam's promotion,

, former Prime Minister and a leader of PML-N, resigned as senior vice president of PML-N, saying "Maryam needs space, if we are there, there will be disagreement, which is not suitable for anyone." He later quit PML-N in December 2023. In an interview, Abbasi said his "stature in the PML-N is equal to that of

and working under Maryam is not acceptable to him at all. He takes it as his insult." Another leader of PML-N, Miftah Ismail, also announced he would quit PML-N following his removal from his position as Federal Minister of Finance by Maryam. The party was founded in June 2024 by

, the former

Prime Minister of Pakistan The prime minister of Pakistan (, Roman Urdu, romanized: Wazīr ē Aʿẓam , ) is the head of government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and his chosen Cabinet of Pakistan, cabinet, desp ...

, and Miftah Ismail, the former

. Prior to forming AP, Abbasi was a senior leader of the PML-N. He had left his former party on 16 December 2023, later citing his endorsement of the ووٹ کو عزت دو () narrative, which he claimed the PML-N had abandoned after

had returned from self-imposed exile. Ismail had left the PML-N on 25 June 2023, saying he was "not interested in active politics anymore". Later developments towards the creation of a new political party came in the form of the "Reimagining Pakistan" seminars, organized by Miftah Ismail and

, in various cities across Pakistan. The seminars also included figures like Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, previously associated with the

Pakistan People's Party The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) is a political party in Pakistan and one of the three major Pakistani political parties alongside the Pakistan Muslim League (N) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. With a centre-left political position, it is cu ...

; he did not, however, join Awaam Pakistan, owing to disagreements concerning the party's launch date and its conflict with the

Islamabad High Court The Islamabad High Court (IHC) is the senior court of the Islamabad Capital Territory, Pakistan, with appellate jurisdiction over the following District courts of Pakistan, district courts: * Islamabad District Court (East) * Islamabad Distr ...

's ruling concerning the results of Khokhar's electoral constituency in NA-47. On 21 June 2024, after months of speculation, a video was posted on the

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

account of Awaam Pakistan, which featured a series of people asking questions about multiple national issues. The video featured the tagline 'عوام پاکستان: بدلیں گے نظام' (). On 6 July 2024, the party's formal launching ceremony was held in

. It was also announced that Abbasi had been elected as the convener of the party while Ismail was elected as the secretary during intra-party elections on 19 June. The ceremony was also attended by Mehtab Abbasi, Zaeem Qadri, and Zafar Mirza. They also announced that a formal outline of the party's goals and policies would be published in the coming weeks.

Ideology

During the formal launching ceremony on 6 July 2024, Abbasi was asked of AP's ideology. He answered that the "concept of

left Left may refer to: Music * ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006 * ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016 * ''Left'' (Helmet album), 2023 * "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relativ ...

and

right Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of freedom or Entitlement (fair division), entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal sy ...

has died in Pakistan" and that their ideology would be "helping the people of Pakistan and taking responsibility for them". In an interview with Arab News, Ismail commented on the economic policy of the party, stating the need to "extend tax concessions to middle-income and salaried classes, focus on privatization, limit the government's footprint by encouraging the private sector and privatize the public organizations".

References

{{reflist Political parties in Pakistan 2024 establishments in Pakistan

History

Ideology

See also

References