Pakistan Muslim League (N)

The Pakistan Muslim League (N) (abbr. PML(N), PMLN or PML-N) is a political party in Pakistan and one of the three major Pakistani political parties alongside the Pakistan Peoples Party and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. With a centre-right political position, it is currently the largest party in the federal National Assembly; and third-largest party in the Senate. It is currently leading a coalition government at the center; a majoritarian government in Punjab; and is also a member of the Peoples Party-led coalition in Balochistan.

The party was founded in 1993, when a number of prominent conservative politicians in the country joined hands after the dissolution of Islamic Democratic Alliance, under the leadership of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. The party's platform is generally conservative, which involves supporting free markets, deregulation, lower taxes and private ownership. Although the party initially supported social conservatism, in recent years, the party's political ideology and platform has become more liberally conservative.

One of several continuing factions of the original Muslim League, the seeds of the party were sown following the 1985 elections when the Prime Minister of Pakistan Muhammad Khan Junejo organised the supporters of President Zia-ul-Haq's dictatorship into a single party, known as the Pakistan Muslim League. After President Zia-ul-Haq's death in 1988, under the leadership of Fida Mohammad Khan, a large faction split away from the Junejo-led Pakistan Muslim League, and formed a conservative alliance with various right-wing and Islamist political parties, called the Islamic Democratic Alliance. The alliance formed a government in 1990 under the leadership of Nawaz Sharif. In 1993, the alliance dissolved and the party assumed its current shape, branding itself as the "Nawaz" faction of the Pakistan Muslim League, in contrast to the "Junejo" faction. Members were accused of using Islamist populist rhetoric.

After its foundation, the PML-N, along with the People's Party, dominated the two-party political system of Pakistan. However, after the 1999 coup, the party was eclipsed by its own splinter faction, the Musharraf-backed Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid), for almost a decade. PML-N regained popularity in the 2008 general elections, when it was elected as the principal opposition party. It returned to power following the elections of 2013, with Sharif elected as the prime minister for an unprecedented third term. The party, however, faced a major setback following the disqualification of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 2017. The situation was worsened when Sharif and his daughter Maryam were sentenced to imprisonment on charges of corruption; however, their respective sentences were later suspended.

The party lost both the center and provincial government of its stronghold Punjab, to PTI in the 2018 elections. In 2024, General Elections, Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz emerged as the largest party in Punjab with 193 members in the Provincial Assembly, and also largest in the Center. Maryam Nawaz (daughter of Former PM Nawaz Sharif) became the first female Chief Minister of Punjab.