Although its center lies in the southern province of Sindh, it also has considerable support in the more densely populated province of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan. The party has been elected to power four times since its formation.
The party was launched at its founding convention on 30 November 1967 in Lahore. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was elected its first chairman by participants.
Benazir Bhutto, former chairperson
The party manifesto, first issued on 9 December 1967 is: "Islam is our religion; democracy is our politics; socialism is our economy; power lies with the people.
The Party is structured from municipal unit levels up to the federal level. The Central Executive Committee of the Party is the supreme body that sets out the strategy for the party. The CEC is headed by the Chairman / Co-Chairman and includes all the major office bearers of the party.
After the assassination of PPP leader Benazir Bhutto on 27 December 2007, the 2008 General Elections which were scheduled to be held in January were postponed until 18 February. The PPP won the highest number of seats among all political parties, gaining a total general seats 93 from all provinces in the National Parliament. Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari said that "Pakistan was on its way of ridding dictatorships forever", and appealed to the Pakistan Muslim League (N) leader, former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, to form a coalition controlling over half the seats in Pakistan's 342 seat parliament.
On 9 March 2008 in a press conference held in Muree, Punjab, PML-N Leader Nawaz Sharif and PPP Co-Leader Asif Ali Zardari officially signed an agreement to form a coalition government. Titled the PPP-PML summit declaration, the joint declaration both parties agreed on the reinstatement of judges deposed during the emergency rule imposed on 3 November 2007 by Pervez Musharraf within 30 days after the new federal government was formed. However, this treaty was later on was violated by PPP government, after which PML(N) withdrew from collation and federal government.
PPP candidate Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, won Pakistan’s presidential elections on September 5, 2008.
In December 2011 senior membres such as Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Malik Khurram Ali Khan left PPP, saying they did not agree with how Zardari was leading the party particularly with regards to an alliance with PMLQ and foreign policy . Zulfiqar Mirza the former interior minister of Sindh also resigned as minister because of Zardari's leadership and policies in regard to dealings with MQM. They all felt the party had now moved away from the original ideas it was founded on by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
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