All Pakistan Awami Muslim League
All Pakistan Awami Muslim League (Urdu: آل پاکستان عوامی مسلم لیگ) is a Pakistani political party founded by Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy in February 1950. Pir of Manki Sharif and Khan Ghulam Mohammad Khan from the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) joined it soon afterwards.[1][2]
Around the same time, Iftikhar Mamdot, who was dismissed from the premiership of Punjab, formed a party called Jinnah Muslim League. The two parties merged to form Jinnah Awami Muslim League prior to the provincial elections in 1951.[3]
In the Punjab provincial election in 1951, the Jinnah Awami Muslim League polled 18.3 percent votes and won 32 seats.[3] In the NWFP, it won 4 seats.[1]
In East Pakistan, East Pakistan Awami Muslim League was founded by Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani and Yar Mohammad Khan in June 1949.[2] It was established as the Bengali alternative to the Urdu dominated Muslim League in Pakistan and over centralization of the government. The party quickly gained massive popular support in East Bengal.[4] In the 1954 provincial election in Bengal, the party won 143 seats. The United Front of East Pakistan led by Haq, Bhasani and Surahwardhy the party won a total of 223 seats, soundly defeating the Muslim League with 10 seats.[5]
Subsequently, the two parties merged in 1959 and used the name All Pakistan Awami Muslim League.[6] The party later dropped All Pakistan and named the party Awami Muslim League in East Pakistan. Later, the party evolved under the leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (himself a former aide to Suharwardy) and was named the Awami League .[4] After long arduous consultations and negotiations by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman with the west Pakistan establishment of remaining united as a single nation without bloodshed eventually led the forces of Bangladesh nationalism in the struggle against West Pakistan's military, socio economic and political control, and the civil establishment.[4]
The All Pakistan Awami Muslim League was formed as a breakaway faction of the "All Pakistan Muslim League" in 1949, within two years of the formation of Pakistan. The word Muslim was dropped in 1953.
References
- Kamran, Early phase of electoral politics in Pakistan 2009, p. 269.
- Chowdhury, Moulana Bhashani Leader of the Toiling Masses 2012, p. 72.
- Kamran, Early phase of electoral politics in Pakistan 2009, p. 264.
- Abu Zafar Shamsddin, Atmasriti (Self-memories) -1st part, Dhaka, 2011.
- Kamran, Early phase of electoral politics in Pakistan 2009, p. 277–278.
- Kamran, Early phase of electoral politics in Pakistan 2009, p. 274.
Bibliography
- Chowdhury, Anisuzzaman (2012), Moulana Bhashani Leader of the Toiling Masses: Leader of the Toiling Masses, Moulana Bhashani Foundation, ISBN 978-1-4691-3790-2
- Kamran, Tahir (2009), "Early phase of electoral politics in Pakistan: 1950s" (PDF), South Asian Studies, 24 (2): 257–282
- Samad, Yunas (1995), A Nation in Turmoil: Nationalism and Ethnicity in Pakistan, 1937-1958, Sage, ISBN 978-0-8039-9214-6