Situated in the heart of Lahore's GOR 1, 22 Aikman Road spreads over unkempt 18 kanals, with a few sheds and a colonial building in white. The building, in the centre of the plot, is in shambles, its balconies buried in rubble -- and presently houses the Civil Defence Academy.

22 Aikman Road is not famous for anything. Yet, and possibly a result of the insatiable property boom, it suddenly found itself in the news. A Hindu brother and sister have filed a writ petition in the Lahore High Court claiming ownership of the property which was possessed by their father Gopal Das Wadhwa till the early 1960s.

Brother Bhagwan Gopal Das Wadhwa and sister Shirley Chhugani, who live in the US, filed the writ petition in the Lahore High Court through their lawyer Ali Sibtain Fazli. The court has put off the hearing till February 7.

The story began in the 1960s. Gopal Das and his wife Lilla Vati Bai lived at 22 Aikman Road. Gopal Das and his partners ran a car showroom on The Mall, called Republic Motors (private) Limited. In the spring of 1963, as the petitioners claim, he developed differences with his business partners who filed an FIR on June 12, 1963 against him, alleging that he was an Indian citizen and had over-stayed his visa duration in Pakistan.

October 19, 1963 was a day of victory for all partners of Republic Motors, except Gopal Das. His fortunes suddenly turned topsy turvy as the Magistrate passed an externment order: Gopal must be deported to India immediately.

Later that evening, Gopal Das was left in the no man's land between India and Pakistan, from where he was arrested by the Indian Border Forces on charges of spying, the petitioners maintain. He remained imprisoned till some relatives settled in India intervened and got him released.

Back in Lahore, Lilla Vati and her children were forced to leave the country as well.

Gopal Das was determined to return to Pakistan. Despite being in India, he challenged the externment order and on January 10, 1964 District and Sessions Judge in Lahore set aside his conviction and acquitted him. But 'the state' was not happy. An appeal was moved in 1965 in the Lahore High Court (LHC) which was dismissed by the court's division bench.

Things were moving in favour of Gopal Das. Encouraged by the LHC order, he applied for a Pakistani passport from Pakistan's High Commission in Delhi. His efforts, however, did not meet success.

Back in Lahore, Gopal Das and his property was far from being forgotten. Under Rule 182 of Defence Rules of Pakistan, 22 Aikman Road was declared enemy property and the government of Pakistan issued a notification for the requisition of the property. According to reports, Gopal Das filed a writ petition against the requisition notification in 1969. Later in 1970 he filed another writ petition against the commissioner of Lahore, followed by a third writ petition in 1971, this time against the Enemy Property Board which had called tenders for the disposal of the property.

Gopal's first seven years in India were spent lining up one law suit after another, primarily to return to Lahore and acquire his property. But the line of cases came to nothing. Not long afterwards in 1974 Lilla Vati died, followed by her husband eleven years later in 1985 -- both as Pakistani nationals, who lived in India on a permit which was renewed from time to time, hold the Wadhwa siblings.

Almost three decades later the family has woken up; and has taken up the issue once again -- not willing to give up easily what their father strived for during his life after externment. They claim through their counsel that Gopal Das and his wife Lilla Vati are the legal heirs of 22 Aikman Road and that the property is illegally declared an enemy property -- a clear violation of the constitution of Pakistan.

According to the constitution of Pakistan, a person cannot be deprived of his property without his consent, without due compensation or without due process of law. The writ petition filed by the family stresses that Gopal Das was "deprived of the rightful ownership of his property by assuming that he was not a Pakistani citizen and under the pretext his property was taken as enemy property under Rule 182 of Defence Rules of Pakistan". The petitioners further urge that the act of notifying 22 Aikman Road as enemy property violates the fundamental rights guaranteed to Pakistanis.

In response, the state dismisses the petition on the ground of laches. It maintains that it does not accept Gopal Das Wadhwa and Lilla Vati Bai as citizens of Pakistan and that the petitioners are American nationals having no legal status to lay hands on the property. The 18 kanals of 22 Aikman Road have been declared enemy property and vested in the deputy custodian of enemy property on December 13 1966 and December 19, 1966. To further complicate the case, it reveals that the property was sold to the government of Punjab in 1976.

While the case is still to be decided, it nonetheless raises concerns over the enemy property order 1965. Who is an enemy of Pakistan after all? The Enemy Property (Custody and Registration) Order 1965 defines enemy as "any person whose property is for the time being vested in the custodian by an order under sub-rule (1) of rule 182." So, any property being held or managed by the custodian on behalf of an enemy is said to be enemy property. In a crux, the order allows the government to seize ownership of properties from individuals it holds as enemy of the state, as in the case of Gopal Das Wadhwa.

The Enemy Property Order in Pakistan basically applies to properties which were left by people who migrated to India after the 1965 India-Pakistan war.

There are three types of abandoned properties in Pakistan for whose management the government has appointed its officials and incorporated special departments. They are: evacuee property, belonging to those who migrated from Pakistan after 1947 partition; enemy property belonging to those who left Pakistan for India after 1965 and 1971 wars and; abandoned property belonging to those who migrated to Bangladesh after the 1971 war.

The federal secretary communication is the custodian of enemy property in Pakistan and there is a subordinate office of the federal communication ministry to manage such properties. Officials in the ministry are tightlipped and do not disclose the exact number of moveable or immovable properties or assets considered as enemy property, citing that it is a very sensitive issue and that property is managed under Defence rules.

However, an official confided in The News on Sunday and revealed that most of the enemy property in Punjab and Sindh has already been auctioned. But some properties and agriculture land still remains unauctioned in Sindh. An official said that there were many law suits pending in court on enemy properties.

Actually the Enemy Property Act has been highlighted by the Amnesty International as a major human rights concern that has contributed to internal displacement, emigration and disenfranchisement. The act is criticised as a tool for appropriating the lands of the minority population.

On the home front, perhaps it's time to consider scrapping such an unfair enemy property order from the law books of Pakistan, given the softening of relations between India and Pakistan.

Pakistan though is not the only country maintaining enemy property law in the books. India and Bangladesh have a similar kind of law. India has the Custodian for Enemy Property which is an Indian government department, empowered to appropriate property in India owned by Pakistani nationals.

According to web encyclopedia wikipedia, "After the India-Pakistani War of 1965, the Enemy Property Act was promulgated in 1968. The act authorised the Central Government of India to appoint a custodian for enemy property for India and one or more deputy/assistant custodians as assistances. There is also a provision which validates the appointments made under the Defence of India Rules 1962 and 1971. The Pakistani nationals in question were citizens of undivided India before the Partition of India in 1947 took place, and left India to settle down in Pakistan."

Under the notification issued on September 10 and September 11, 1965, the Indian government vested property in India either belonging to or managed on behalf of Pakistani nationals in the hands of the custodian. The list comprises 2,943 immovable properties such as land, buildings etc.; and movable properties such as securities, shares, debentures, bank balances through fixed deposits and other amounts lying in enemy national's bank accounts. It includes 1,345 income cases, 231 declared cases, 1,011 process cases and 356 court cases.

Among the many affected by the act in Bangladesh is Amartya Sen, the 1998 Indian Nobel laureate for economics. The Bangladesh government confiscated a sprawling house and its surrounding grounds owned by his family and declared it 'enemy property' after the country won independence.

Though successive governments of Bangladesh have vowed to repeal the act, none has done so. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman wished to repeal all laws in violation of the non-communal constitution that had been established. Later Sheikh Hasina's Awami League came very close to repealing the act in 2001 but to no avail.

Likewise several Bangladeshi politicians and human rights activists condemn the act. An international conference organised by several Hindu activist groups held in London on June 16, 2005 was addressed by, among others, Lord Avebury of the British House of Lords and called for repeal of the act.

Of course we all heard the story at our grandmother's knee. How the great warrior Mahmud of Ghazni commissioned the poet Abul Kasim Mansur -- the even greater 'Firdausi' -- to write in verse the early history of Persia, before its conquest by, and conversion to Islam in verse. He promised to pay the poet one gold 'Mohur' for every verse, and when thirty years and sixty thousand verses later, it was finished, sent him silver coins instead. Firdausi returned the money, wrote a rude verse -- a 'Hijv' - for the Sultan and sent it to him. Eventually the king relented and sent the gold around, and it arrived just in time to cross Firdausi's funeral.

Fortunately the poem, the 'Shahnama' survived both the king's parsimony and the poet's petulance to become one of the greatest masterpieces of epic literature. It is a wondrous tale, mostly probably fictional, but chock-full of adventure and romance and tragedy, of beauteous maidens and valorous heroes the most known of them being Rustam and Sohrab. It is so much a part of our tradition that when we set up our first industries, one of them being bicycles, we named the bikes Rustam and Sohrab. And even Hafeez Jalandhari Sahib wrote his own 'Shahnama-i-Islam' and was proud to call himself the Firdausi of today.

Back in the thirties when Gama Pehlwaan and Imam Bakhsh burst upon the scene and made wrestling the order of the day, even dragging in Zybisco from Poland or wherever, the title they selected for themselves was 'Rustam-e-Hind' and later 'Pakistan' for Bholu. And Prithviraj Kapoor went on to make a film of 'Rustam and Sohrab' which was a great hit though the less said about it the better. My friend Obaidullah Baig even contends that the heroes were actually Balochis as Balochistan then faded into the empires of Iran and Sistan; and he is keen to tell us that a cave in Balochistan is still named after Bizen the son of Sohrab. The point is that we have always owned Firdausi and his Shahnama as part of our legacy.

So it was a bit odd to come across it in American compendium called 'National Epics' published in the States in 1898 by Kate Milner Rabb, and once owned by Lena Hendren Helms whose name appears on the flyleaf in bold convent school handwriting. The thing is that this was a time when America revelled in its 'splendid isolation' and was not much interested in the affairs of others, even less in the affairs of what is now the Middle East as it had not yet started its romance with the automobile and Iran didn't yet know it was sitting on oodles of oil.

The contents make interesting reading. They open with the two Indian epics the 'Ramayan' and the 'Mahabharat' though knowledge of the two is rather tentative, the former being ascribed to both Valmiki and Vyas. Predictably enough the Homeric epics follow and then the other European sagas, the Song of Roland, the Aeneid and the very Teutonic 'Ring of the Nibelung', the 'Divine Comedy' is there, though I am not sure how Milton's 'Paradise Lost' qualifies as a 'National' epic. And strung somewhere in between is the 'Shahnama'.

It is reassuring though that the author's acquaintanceship with the work too is tentative and hesitant. For instance the name of the poet is spelt Abul Kasin, which is not a misprint because the name of his hometown too is written 'Thus' which is a bit far from 'Tus'. This is all a bit before 'Spellcheck' and the internet gave instant access to spellings, and perhaps even before we became familiar with standardised spellings especially of proper nouns. Akbar the Great, it is recorded received a letter from his contemporary Queen Elizabeth the First of England, in English obviously, where his name was spelt 'Chalebdin Echebar'. Before that, for a thousand years hapless Europeans, in their rare dealings with the Muslim world had to contend with 'Amir-ul-Momineen' and some day I'll tell you what a mess they made of it!

Under the latest ruling by the Supreme Court of Pakistan, various prisoners who have served their terms but don't have enough money to pay diyat have a chance to get out

By Shahzada

Irfan Ahmed

A large number hapless prisoners had a breather last month when the Supreme Court of Pakistan came to their rescue. These are the prisoners who have already served their terms in prisons but undergoing additional terms for not being able to pay fines like diyat, arsh or daman required for their release. This additional term is not very well defined as it can span months, years or even decades if these compensations are not paid to the surviving victims of physical injuries or heirs of the deceased victims by the offenders.

In its ruling on December 14, 2006 the Supreme Court declared that the laws regarding payment of diyat etc are not against the Constitution of Pakistan or Islam. The court was hearing appeals against the orders of the Lahore High Court and the Peshawar High Court in which they had declared diyat unconstitutional and un-Islamic back in 2002.

The court also directed the federal government to frame rules and provide mechanism for creating funds, for the purpose of making payment of diyat, arsh and daman on behalf of convicts. These rules would be meant for the convicts who, on account of their weak financial position, are languishing in jails for want of making the said payments. The Supreme Court had earlier issued notices to all the four provincial governments and sought records of all those prisoners who were detained in jails due to non-payment of diyat despite completion of their sentences.

Under the Qisas and Diyat laws, the right to Qisas (of causing similar hurt) in the cases relating to hurt can be compounded by the surviving victims or the legal heirs of the deceased victim. In case of injuries, they can accept arsh or daman depending on the type of injury or the level of disability caused by the offender. Diyat (blood money) on the other hand is the compensation payable to the legal heirs of the murdered victim.

The Qisas & Diyat Ordinance, based on the punishments provided under the Islamic laws (Shar'iah), was promulgated initially in the year 1990. After that it was periodically re-promulgated and finally passed by the parliament in 1997. The law of qisas and diyat, as enacted and enforced in Pakistan re-conceptualised the offences relating to physical injury and murder in Islamic terms as understood in Pakistan and replaced about 40 relevant sections (299 to 338), of the Pakistan Penal Code, 1860 which were derived from British Common Law.

Syeda Viquar-un-Nisa Hashmi, a research associate with the National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) says in her paper titled 'Qisas & Diyat Law as a Part of Pakistan Penal Code, 1860' that one of the major impacts of this re-conceptualisation is that now such offences against human body are directed not against the legal order of the state but against the person of the victim. Besides, the prosecution case can collapse if the legal heirs of the deceased waive the right of qisas or compound the murder under Qisas & Diyat Ordinance. This, she says, has been used negatively, mostly in cases of honour killing, where the male members of the family pardon the murderer (who is one of them) themselves.

Asif Mehmood, a Lahore-based lawyer tells The News on Sunday that the Supreme Court has passed a landmark order that will enable convicts to start their lives afresh after completing their jails terms. Citing the Supreme Court ruling, he says the government has been asked to look into the possibility whereby "soft loans can be extended to the convicts, enabling them to satisfy the claim of the legal heirs of the deceased or victim. Simultaneously it would also be examined whether it would be possible for the government to provide jobs to the convicts, other than the government departments through social organisations or philanthropists, enabling the convicts to disburse the amount of loan, if extended to them."

As an interim arrangement, Asif says, another option is suggested to the government regarding those convicts, who have already undergone substantive imprisonment but are in jails all over the country due to non-payment of Diyat or Arsh. The Supreme Court has recommended that such convicts shall be released forthwith under Section 331(1) and 337-X of PPC, subject to furnishing security to the satisfaction of the District & Sessions Judge, concerned for a period of three years, enabling them to make the payment of diyat and arsh at their own resources in lumpsum or in equal instalments, or taking loans from the funds, created by the government.

Besides, the apex court has also asked the government to look into the possibility of increasing the 3-year period allowed to convicts to pay off the amount in instalments to 7 years, he adds.

Asif says there are many people who are serving jail terms for not causing hurt intentionally as is the case in qatl-e-khata. Had they been able to pay arsh or diyat leviable of them, they wouldn't have to spend a single day in the prison.

Punjab law department spokesman Hafiz Javed tells TNS that there are no problems at all regarding the implementation of the ruling passed by the Supreme Court. "The federal government has been given three months to frame rules to arrange for payment of diyat on behalf of the prisoners in question. The provincial governments will also be making all efforts to facilitate the process," he says. When asked as to why the government could not take notice of the situation earlier, he says: "We do take measures and have formed a special cell in the law department to rationalise existing laws. Sometime you unintentionally miss something of great importance and need guidance. This time we are lucky enough to have been shown direction by the worthy Supreme Court of Pakistan."

Ahsan has been colouring women's clothes at a roadside stall near Gawalmandi, Lahore for the last 8 months. Before this he used to be a dor specialist and his kite flying string was well known for its strength and vitality.

Ahsan was forced to change his profession when the Supreme Court of Pakistan, took suo motu action to ban kite flying all over the country. Following the order, the Punjab government promulgated the Punjab Prohibition of Kite Flying Ordinance, 2006 -- a law that put a complete ban on kite flying and manufacturing of kites and strings. Through this ordinance the Punjab government amended the earlier Punjab Prohibition of Dangerous Kite Flying Activities Ordinance, 2001 which only banned dangerous kite flying and the use of metallic wire in such activities.

The 2001 ordinance was introduced after several people were killed by glass-coated or metal kite strings, but unfortunately the 2001 ordinance had little impact on controlling the number of people losing their lives due to Lahore's favorite pastime. As a result the Supreme Court took suo motu notice of the matter and banned the activity in its entirety, following which the 2006 ordinance was passed.

The Punjab government's recent decision to again allow kite flying in the province, at least for the duration of the Basant festival, has been a popular one with the one million people estimated to be associated with the kite flying and related industry, who believed they had been hard done by the Supreme Court's earlier decision.

"Banning the activity completely was not fair. Kite flying has been going on for centuries without any hazard to anyone's life and the reason is that this is an inherently safe sport. I understand that certain people indulge in activities that result in dangerous consequences, and the 2001 ordinance dealt precisely with that problem. The fact that the ordinance failed to deliver the desired results was due to the incompetence of the law enforcing agencies alone. Putting a complete ban on the entire activity was never going to be a long term solution," says the disgruntled Ahsan who has a family to feed and now makes less than half the money he used to when making kite strings.

Ahsan has again ordered the raw material used for dor-making, but is still not happy with the temporary lifting on the ban only for the duration of the basant festival.

"The rich and the powerful do not have the time to fly kites the year round -- they have other pastimes for that. They only fly kites during the basant festival and have a nice time at the different parties and festivities arranged by companies and hotels. This temporary lifting of the ban shall only benefit the chosen few," says Ahsan who claims he shall only make a few extra thousand till basant, before being back at the colouring shop again.

Some believe this is not true and that the people associated with the kite flying business shall make a lot of money during the short but 'heavy' kite flying period. "People have been waiting for this event for a long time and they haven't gotten a chance to fly kites this year. My prediction is that a lot is going to be spent on basant this year and people associated with the kite flying business shall make a healthy profit," Kabeer Ahmed, a kite flying enthusiast tells TNS.

While certain people are looking forward to the event and in promoting the economy associated with the event, others cannot believe how the government can even think of 'celebrating' an event that has cost so many people their lives. Waseem Amjad is an engineer who lost his 8-year-old cousin while taking a ride on his father's motorcycle last year and he finds no justification in lifting the ban.

"The trauma for the family is unbearable and when you see the government supporting an activity that cost them their son's life, it becomes so much more difficult for them. I cannot believe the government is actually going to permit kite flying again. How many more people shall die before the government will realize that having fun should not be at the expense of the citizens of this country," asks Waseem.

Ahsan, however, believes that a strong implementation of the original law shall achieve the desired results. "If the government takes strict action against those engaged in dangerous activities and using material that is a potential threat to others, I think the sport can go on without any problems."

The government is trying to do exactly that by opening up the pastime only subject to a stricter conditions, which shall eventually be submitted before the Supreme Court for approval.

Under the new proposed regulations, the following conditions shall be enforced:

• metal-reinforced and glass-coated strings will be banned

• only cotton strings up to a certain thickness will be allowed

• kites larger than 2x2 feet, that require a thicker string, will be prohibited

• kite strings will only be coated with wheat-flour glue, dye and soft, ground glass.

• Licenses will be issued to kite and dor manufacturers and only licensed shopkeepers will be allowed to sell such products.

A police officer who does not want to be named, believes, however, that none of these measures are going to make any difference. "It is not possible for us to implement these conditions. How can we be expected to check the thickness of all the kite strings being manufactured or be expected to know what is a string being coated with? We cannot even apprehend anyone using kites larger than the prescribed dimensions. Last year we had a huge problem in implementing the 2001 ordinance and I have no problem in accepting the fact that we failed completely in effectively implementing it. I also have no problems in declaring that we will in all probability fail again this year."

It is clear, therefore, that the impact of these new measures is uncertain and the threat to the nonparticipating citizens shall persist. We can only hope for the event to pass without any loss of life as no amount of fun or economic activity can justify the loss of innocent life.

With all the rumours of a deal between military dominated administration of Gen. Pervez Musharraf and People's Party of Benazir Bhutto all other political parties and alliances are feeling uneasy. PML-N had hoped that after the signing of 'Charter of Democracy' the PPP would stand with them against Pervez Musharraf during the next elections. But despite Benazir's assurances, Nawaz Sharif has not precluded the possibility of an alliance with religious parties, especially Jamaat-i-Islami.

Benazir Bhutto who is very particular about not annoying the United States wants to keep away from the religious parties and their anti-west political stand. Apparently, Gen. Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto have a common political stand -- of keeping the religion-based parties away from an electoral performance similar to 2002 elections. Pakistan People's Party has already expressed its affirmation by supporting Gen. Musharraf's amendments to the Hudood Ordinance in the parliament.

MMA is obviously rubbed the wrong way by such developments since PPP had been performing well in all previous elections despite an unsympathetic attitude of the establishment. A deal between the PPP and the military rulers would completely ruin their chances in the next election.

The ruling Muslim League, organised and strengthened by the establishment, too is very uneasy about the rumours. As the Chaudhry brothers make headway in supporting a president in a general's uniform and receive his praises in response, the law and order situation in the province leaves much to be desired. The attention of the provincial chief is concentrated on the election campaign, therefore, he has no time to tighten the grip on the administration which is directly responsible for providing a sense of security to the public.

All talk about the alleged, or real, negotiations for a working arrangement with PPP is the result of a very visible silence of the ruling party politicians regarding General Musharraf's political programme. The only support Musharraf has received for his politics comes from the PPP turncoats, because their survival in politics after change of loyalties is directly dependent on Musharraf's success.

Muslim League in Punjab has always been in a disarray since its inception in 1907. The ruling Muslim League that emerged on the political scene in Punjab when Nawaz government was dislodged by a military coup is the thirteenth edition of a party with the name of Muslim League. The first division in the newly formed Muslim League had occurred in 1907 when two influential persons from Punjab, Mian Shahdin and Mian Fazle Hussain (Sir Fazle Hussain) founded the Party at Lahore and at Gurdaspur. Mian Shahdin was the president at Lahore and Mian Fazle Hussain was president of Muslim League announced in Gurdaspur. However, when Mian Shahdin was appointed a judge of the Punjab Chief Court, he had to resign from the Party, leaving behind a rivalry between Fazle Hussain and Mian Muhammad Shafi (Sir Shafi). Mian Fazle Hussain was from an influential family of Gurdaspur that had enjoyed a privileged position since the reign of Sikh rulers in Punjab. His father, Khan Bahadur Mian Hussain Bakhsh had retired as a District Judge. Fazle Hussain had started his political career from the Muslim League platform in 1905 and remained a successful and a very powerful leader of Unionist Party which he had founded in 1924. The Unionist Part of Punjab was an organisation of Hindu, Sikh and Muslim landed aristocrats.

In 1916, Mian Fazle Hussain supported Mr. Jinnah's stand of giving more representation to non-Muslims in Muslim majority provinces of Bengal and Punjab as the Congress had accepted the principle of separate electorate. Sir Mian Muhammad Shafi resigned from the Muslim League as a protest and Mian Fazle Hussain became the sole incharge of Muslim League in Punjab. The political situation in Punjab saw some turbulent years.

The hold of feudals and Nawabs on Punjab politics that had started from Sir Fazle Hussain remained intact even after the emergence of Pakistan till Gen. Muhammad Ayub Khan captured power in 1958 through a military coup. Earlier, a bureaucrat of Indian Finance Service Malik Ghulam Muhammad from Punjab dominated the politics of Pakistan for many years as Governor-General. In Punjab a political conflict between Nawab Iftikhar Hussain Mamdot and Mian Mumtaz Ahmad Khan Daultana also divided the Muslim League in Punjab. And that was not the first division in the party.

Earlier, the all India Muslim League was also divided into two factions in 1928, when Sir Muhammad Shafi, disagreeing from Muhammad Ali Jinnah's efforts for unity among Hindus and Muslims, formed a Muslim League and declared himself as its president and Dr Muhammad Iqbal was its secretary general. These two factions were reunited by the efforts of Jinnah and some of his close associates in 1931.

In 1962, Muslim League was once again divided into two factions, when Ayub Khan assumed the presidentship of the party after it was revived at a convention at Karachi. Those who did not attend the convention and said that the Council was authorised to restore it, held the council meeting at Dhaka. Ayub faction was called Convention League while the other was council Muslim League. In the meantime Council Muslim League was further divided when Zahid Sarfraz from Layallpur (Faisalabad) announced his own Muslim League because of his differences with Mumtaz Daultana, the president of Council League.

At the time of 1970 elections, the first ones to be held on adult franchise after independence, another Muslim League emerged when Khan Abdul Qayyum Khan announced his own Muslim League. A Muslim League emerged during Zia era when he called for non-party elections eight years of martial law and nominated Muhammad Khan Junejo as the prime minister in a non-party assembly. However, he declared his supporters as Muslim League after few months.

When General Zia sacked Junejo administration and announced non-party election once again, members of his party from Punjab under the leadership of Mian Nawaz Sharif opted for a non-party system. However, when such elections were declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court Mian Nawaz named his supporters as Muslim league. After Muhamamd Khan Junejo died, Mian Nawaz Sharif declared himself president of the party without taking Junejo loyalists into confidence. Thus Nawaz League and Junejo League became two factions.

Three other factions of Muslim League emerged from Punjab. Manzur Wattoo, a Nawaz Loyalist, rebelled against him and sided with the PPP and named his small group as Muslim League. The other faction had come to the forefront during Zia regime when an important Muslim Leaguer Malik Qasim refused to support Ziaul Haq and announced his own Muslim League which was a part of MRD, an alliance for the restoration of democracy. The third and so far the last faction of Muslim League was created in Punjab in 1999, when General Pervez Musharraf dismissed Nawaz government and arrested him, his close associates in his government, led by Mian Azhar from Lahore.

Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Chaudhry Pervaiz Illahi from Gujrat, Begum Abida Hussain and Syed Fakhre Imam from Jhang and Syed Mushahid Hussain also from Lahore, all important members of Nawaz government decided to support General Musharraf unconditionally and named their group as 'Hum Khayal'. Later the group as it enlarged was called Muslim League (Quaid-e-Azam).

In all Muslim League from its inception in 1906 has so far been divided into 13 factions in the last one hundred years. Every time Punjab played a prominent role in its division.