Pakistan - Political flags

The latest photos I have (but months before Joe's trip) show the flag with a white horizontal sword in the lower part.
Jaume Ollé, 31 January 2003

Might it have been an arrow? One of the PPP factions was using an arrow as a party symbol, although I did not see it on a flag. The unidentifiable logo I saw was clearly not a sword--it looked like an American football with an inscription below it.
Joe McMillan, 1 February 2003

Pakistan Peoples Party - Benazir Bhutto's faction

image by Jorge Candeias

Yesterday, in a news report on the nuclear tensions between India and Pakistan, I saw an unknown to me flag: a 1:2 vertical tricolour of red, black and green. It was being flown in a military parade. Any ideas?
Jorge Candeias, 18 May 1998

It's the flag of the Pakistan People's Party, of which Benazir Bhutto is the leader. Flags of political parties throughout the sub-continent tend to be modified at the whim of the maker: crescents, stars, slogans, images of people, (usually the leader), etc., are all commonly displayed on them.
Glen Robert-Grant Hodgins, 19 May 1998

A few days ago, television news covered the arrival back in Pakistan of Benazir Bhutto. A large rally was shown in one scene, with a lot of flags, mainly of two sorts. One of those was a variant on a flag shown above (Murtazi Bhutto's faction), with the white crescent and star on a red-black-green vertical tricolour. It had the addition, however, of script in white under the crescent and star.
James Dignan, 22 October 2007

image by Clay Moss, 28 December 2007

I have also seen a party flag variant(?) with an arrow that was prominently displayed on BBC. I saw two versions of this same flag. One was on BBC's website and the other was on BBC television.
Clay Moss, 28 December 2007

Jamiat e Islami

image by António Martins and Mario Fabretto

Yesterday, the news was full of reports from demonstrations against Mrs Bhutto, now led by the party jam'at alislami. Its flag replaces the white stripe of the national flag by a light blue and a white stripe (ratio approx 2:1). Moreover, the crescent and star point towards the hoist. Perhaps, the orientation of the crescent reflects the orientation of the party (which, in this case, is considered to be a "fundamentalist" one).
Harald Müller, 28 October 1996

In yesterday's paper Publico I saw a photo taken in Islamabad (a demonstrator holding a sign saying "CRUSH INDIA") with two or three flags on background: per bend azure over green, a bend argent. Does this ring a bell to someone?
António Martins, 15 May 1998

That's the flag of the party Jamiat Al Islami. At least three versions are know, all in vertical blue (at hoist) and green at fly (1:4) and a narrow white stripe between the two bands. The differences are the following:

1) the first one has the crescent and star (like the Pakistan national flag) and below the shahada.

2) the second has only the crescent and star (reported by Harald Mueller, former list member, with the crescent pointing towards the hoist and slighty rotated to the bottom; but I saw it in TV with the crescent and star in normal position).

3) The third has only the shahada and no crescent and star.

image by Jorge Hurtado

The Party Jamât-e-Islami (Islamist party) flag was seen on a visit to Pakistan from February to March 2001.
Michel Lupant, published in Gaceta de Banderas, October 2001

The Jamaat-e-Islami is a very conservative Islamist party that is one of the two leading components of the MMA, the Islamist coalition. The MMA won 53 seats in the national assembly (11.3% of the vote) as well as control over the state assembly of NWFP. We have an image of one and describe several others on our party flag page. I saw this flag on at least 100 houses and commercial buildings between the Indus and Peshawar--green field with light blue and white vertical stripes at the hoist, and on the green field a crescent star opening toward the upper hoist (the crescent thinner and shallower than that on the national flag) and the shahada in white at the top. Also visible on the party website.
Joe McMillan, 30 January 2003

Jamiat Ulama'a e Islam

image by Santiago Dotor

A poster was displayed in Quetta, Pakistan, showing this flag along with what appear to be variants of the Taliban flag (white with one or another variant of the shehada), displayed in Quetta, Pakistan.
Al Kirsch, 13 October 2001

Some time ago I recorded a photo from the news of a demonstration in Sindh. The demonstrators hoisted a flag in the Catalan pattern (4 bars) white on dark (probably black or dark red). Many years ago, when Islamism didn't exist at the level of political organisations, I saw this flag many times on TV in new related to Pakistan, Sindh or Punjab (green, black or blue were the colors that I seemed to see). Currently the flag seems to be identified as an Islamist party flag, but why does it exist from many years ago? Can it be a regional flag? Probably regional flags exist in Pakistan. Some years ago, in my notes, and from other vexillologists, it seems that is has only three white bars (and four green). I saw a photo of Jaipur in Punjab with a similar flag (the flag is not totally visible, but could be three white bars on blue of three blue bars on white.
Jaume Ollé, 30 August 1999

The faction of this even more hardline Islamist party led by Fezlur Rehman (and known by the ironic abbreviation JUI-F) is the other main component of the MMA coalition. The JUI flag, seen in the logo on its website http://www.juipak.org is black with four narrow white horizontal stripes.
Joe McMillan, 30 January 2003

Variants of this flag

image by Santiago Dotor

During demonstrations in Peshawar, this flag was also seen in a square (1:1) format, almost certainly black (it could be mistaken with very-very dark green at first glance) and had four white horizontal stripes. The proportion of the white and black stripes was 2:3.
Joe McMillan, 30 January 2003

I have just seen a documentary on the "Talibanization" of Pakistan, and in it the Islamist MMA party was holding a rally, at which there was a variation of this flag with the black stripes twice the size of the white stripes.
Nygdan, 9 January 2006

National Alliance Party

image by Joe McMillan

A coalition of moderate secular parties which won 12 seats (4.6% of the vote) in the national assembly. At http://pakistanspace.tripod.com/1977.htm the flag of the Pakistan National Alliance, which seems to be the same group, is shown as green with nine white stars, 3 x 3, each star tilted about 30 degrees counterclockwise.
Joe McMillan, 30 January 2003

The nine stars flag was reported some years ago as the flag of IDA, Islamic Democratic Alliance.
Jaume Ollé, 31 January 2003

Millat Party

image by Joe McMillan

One of the component parties of the PNA. I saw this flag--divided lower hoist to upper fly, red over green, with the white crescent and star overall--on Pakistani television on 12 January and was able to identify it from http://www.millatparty.com
Joe McMillan, 30 January 2003

This is the flag of Khaksar Tehrik, a political party in Pakistan. The English translation of "Tehrik" is "Movement". See http://allama-mashriqi.8m.com/ for information on Allama Mashriqi -scholar and founder of the Khaksar movement
Office of Allama Mashriqi, 29 Nov 1999

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf

image by Joe McMillan

A small party favoring "a model moderate Islamic republic, political freedom, economic opportunity, and social justice," but best known for being led by the great cricket player Imran Khan, who won the party's only parliamentary seat (the party got 0.8% of the vote). The flag can be seen at http://insaf.org.pk: horizontally green over red with a white crescent and star overall.
Joe McMillan, 30 January 2003

Pakistan Awami Tehreek

image by Joe McMillan

A rather Iranian-looking flag for a party with 1 parliamentary seat and 0.7% of the vote. Despite its small support base, I saw several of these flags on the outskirts of Peshawar: horizontal tricolor, red-white-green.
Joe McMillan, 30 January 2003

Party El Jihad Tanzim

image by Jorge Hurtado

Seen on a visit to Pakistan from February to March 2001, this flag is fairly new as far as I know, though I have seen the flag on TV. Can anybody identify the inscription?
Michel Lupant, published in Gaceta de Banderas, October 2001

The inscription is Akbar = The greatest.
Dov Gutterman, 16 October 2001

I would like to contest your translation of Party Al-Jihad Tanzim. It could be read Akbar, but I believe it to be Al-Jihad. Though it could very well have been written this ambiguous way to convey both meanings. As with the following pages which do indeed say al-Jihad, a small 'h' (chhoTii he) is occasionally used instead of the big 'H' (baRii He) in Urdu. If this were pure Arabic, you would be uncontested. But in my opinion, this is a Nastaliq (Perso=Arabic style of the Arabic Alphabet) rendering of Al-Jihad.
Kurt Singer, 24 February 2005

Party Sipâh-e-Sâhaba

image by Jorge Hurtado

Seen on a visit to Pakistan from February to March 2001, several variants are known.
Michel Lupant, published in Gaceta de Banderas, October 2001

This flag and variants was seen in various reports in 2001, and is more fully described on our page on Party Sipâh-e-Sâhaba.

Party Arkat el Mujahideen

image by Jorge Hurtado

Seen on a visit to Pakistan from February to March 2001, this flag is fairly new as far as I know.
Michel Lupant, published in Gaceta de Banderas, October 2001

I believe the inscription is 'the jihad'.
Santiago Dotor, 16 October 2001

On ABC Television last night, there was a piece on Pakistanis who've gone to fight with the Taliban in Afghanistan. At one point, there was a brief shot of a billboard in Pakistan about those who've fought. The camera focused on a flag depicted on the bottom left (the "signature" area) of the sign (that is, a small picture of a flying flag on a pole, not a real flag). The flag was white, with two green stripes running across it- rather than five stripes, white-green-white-green-white, it seemed to be two thick stripes in the center of the flag. In the center of the flag, covering the stripes (they weren't visible under it) was a black and white globe, shown as a circle/sphere with latitude and longitude marked (no continents). Written on the globe was an Arabic (or Urdu/Pashto?) word or two, but the camera moved away before I could make it out.
Nathan Lamm, 5 December 2001

Party Jihad

image by Jorge Hurtado

Seen on a visit to Pakistan from February to March 2001, the Party Jihad, which advocates holy war in Kashmir. This is a fairly new flag as far as I know. I believe the inscription is 'jihad'.
Michel Lupant, published in Gaceta de Banderas, October 2001

  image by Jarig Bakker

This party flag can be seen at http://www.mqm.com/
Dov Gutterman, 15 Dec 1999

The MQM was founded in 1981 as "Muhajir Quami Mahaz" (Muhajir National Movement), and was mainly concerned with the rights of post-partition Urdu-speaking migrants from India to Pakistan, who it would like to see recognized as constituting a "fifth nationality". In 1987 the party won a majority of seats in Karachi, and, with 13 seats, became the third biggest party in the National Assembly in 1988. In 1993 the party split in three groups:
- The "official" MQM
- MQM-Altaf, led by Altaf Husain. resident in London
- MQM-Haqiqi, led by Afaq Ahmed

It seems that the MQM-Altaf became the dominant party under the name Muttahida Quami Movement. In 1999 the Pakistani government launched a secretive operation against the MQM, which cost the lives of several prominent party-members, which in its turn caused demonstrations in Karachi

Source: Political Handbook of the World, 1997
Fischer Weltalmanach 2001
Jarig Bakker, 17 September 2001

The MQM movement applied to become a member of the UNPO some years ago. They are from the Sind minority living in the Southern part of Pakistan.
Pacer Prince, 27 September 2001

Muttahida Quami Movement (formerly Mohajir Quami Movement) (MQM) - The MQM is a mainly Karachi-based party that caters to the interests of Mohajirs,  the Muslims who emigrated from India to Pakistan at partition in 1947 and their descendants. It won 13 seats (3.1% of the vote) in the new national assembly. The flag, as shown at http://www.mqm.org consists of vertical stripes of red and dark green at the hoist and a large white field in the fly. The green stripe is sometimes shown equal to the red one and sometimes slightly narrower.  Click here for an equal width red/green stripe version.
Joe McMillan, 30 January 2003

Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA)

I haven't seen any of these in town [Islamabad], but at the website of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) is the MMA party flag: white with a green crescent open toward the upper hoist, with the Arabic words Allahu akbar (God is great) inscribed within the horns of the crescent and the party name in Urdu script at the bottom. This is the union of Islamist parties that got so much attention for its strong showing in the recent elections, including gaining control of the provincial legislature in the heavily Pashtun Northwest Frontier Province.
Joe McMillan, 12 January 2003

Pushtunkuwa Milli Awami Party (Pushtunkuwa National Awami Party)

image by Santiago Dotor

Yesterday I saw a TV report about the arrest of Maulana Fazlur Rehman, leader of the pro-Taleban Pakistani party Jamiat Ulema Islam. Even though most images showing him attending demonstrations showed the black flag with white stripes we have already discussed, another demonstration showed several people waving large flags unlike any other of the Pakistani UFEs we have discussed. These were vertical tricolours of red-white-green, with a red star in the centre pointing downwards. The shade of red appeared slightly orange on my monitor. I guess you are thinking I saved my image upside down by some mistake. Well, I am afraid I didn't! I did see several flags, all of them with the red stripe by the *hoist*, and those in which I could see the central star, this was pointing *down*.
Santiago Dotor, 8 October 2001

BBC TV also had similar footage. I agree that the red looked orange. My impression - and it's only an impression - was that some stars were pointing downwards, some sideways. Difficult to tell in a couple of seconds and without the video running! I wasn't clear from the commentary who the demonstrators were - the former king of Afghanistan was also mentioned.
André Coutanche, 8 October 2001

This red-white-green tricolour with red upside-down star is that of the Pushtunkuwa National Awami Party. The star is correct as in the image (upside down), even if there might be variations as in Santiago Tazón's image below.  It has been reported on Yahoo Daily News, wrongly attributed to the Jamuhari Watan Party, unless this party uses the same flag. The caption reads: "Pakistani men wave their party's flag and hold up banners during a rally of the JWP (Jamuhari Watan Party, a leftist, nationalist, pro-democracy party) in central Quetta October 7, 2001. Thousands of Pakistan's Pasthun-speaking people heard their leader, Mehmoud Khan Achakzai, call for an independent, democratic government in Afghanistan. The Achakzai leftist Nationalist party is opposed to any U.S. military intervention, saying a democratic Afghanistan would root out foreign terrorists like Osama Bin Laden. REUTERS/Jerry Lampen"
Jaume Ollé, 12 October 2001

Variant of the flag

image by Santiago Tazón

I saw this flag in the TV news, today. A Spanish TV channel was broadcasting a report about the Islamic movements of Pakistan, they mixed several images and in one of them appeared several flags like the image that I made. Three vertical stripes, green, white and red; all of them same width. In the center of the white stripe a red five points star. I don't know what group uses it.
Santiago Tazón, 7 October 2001

Islamic Students Organization of Pakistan (Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba)

image by Juan Manuel Gabino Villascán

According to the "El Universal" (Mexican newspaper) this is the flag of the "Islamic Students Organization of Pakistan". I can just identify the text that says "Pakistan" at the end of the sentence, may be it is the organization's name. The orange text says: "Allahu Akbar" (God is almighty).
Juan Manuel Gabino Villascán, 13 October 2001

The flag of Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba is green at the hoist, narrow red vertical stripe, last half (more or less) light blue with white crescent and star opening to fly. Whatever website I got this from says the organization was formed in 1947. "Jamiat" means something like "union," I believe, so this would be something like "Islamic Union of Students."

A similar flag is at http://www.jamiat.org/about/flag.asp. The colors are the same, but the green and red bands in the hoist are of about equal width, the crescent and star face the hoist, the crescent is thinner and shallower, and the Takbir (Allahu akbar) appears in red between the crescent and the star. The name on this site is
given as Islami Jamiat Talibat Pakistan, which should mean Islamic Union of Students of Pakistan. Sounds like the same group, but the site says it was founded in 1969, so apparently not--maybe an offshoot.
Joe McMillan, 2 February 2003

Mr. Juan Manuel Gabino Villascan IS correct on Allaahu Akbar, however the text on the flag says 'Bagistan' NOT 'Pakistan'!
Kurt Singer, 24 February 2005

by Santiago Dotor

I saw on Polish TG a flag hoisted during an anti-American demonstration in Pakistan (most probably in Peshawar). This flag does not seem to be any of Pakistani political movements' flags, nor it is the Taliban movement's flag, as far as the outside world knows anything about Taliban regime. It's probable that it's to connected to some political and religious movement involving Taliban and Pakistani Moslems.
Bartek Wojciechowski, 22 September 2001

There is something written under the crescent. Fortunately, in a TV news coverage this evening a slightly enlarged version of the flag appeared. I took a TV screenshot of it and analyzed the content of the inscription. Please note it has a rather low degree of accuracy, as:
- the shooting quality was poor
- transposing images via TV-MAC-PC gives shabby effects
- the flag appeared for mere 2.05 sec
- the flag was waving
- the flag (and letters) was actually inverted
- the flag appeared in the very corner of the TV screen
- I don't speak Urdu.

I have some knowledge of Persian (written in Arabic script as well) though and I tried to put down the letters:



I don't understand the first word (words?), but the middle one and the last one go "...Talib Pakistan". That's quite understandable, isn't it? I hope somebody with good command of Urdu or Arabic, maybe will able to correct my version and say what it means.
Bartek Wojciechowski, 26 September 2001

This is the flag of islami jamiat e talabe (Islamic Students Organization). Their official website is at: www.jamiat.org.pk
Dr. Zafar Iqbal, 22 April 2006

Hizb ut Tahrir

image by Joe McMillan

Black with the shahada. Given the source, undoubtedly a radical Islamist group, but a minor political party. The transliteration of the name is not typical of Urdu, so this may actually be an Arab group of some kind, but the source is in Pakistan. Source: http://www.khilafah.com.pk
Joe McMillan, 2 February 2003

Pakistan Christian Congress

image by Joe McMillan

Vertical tricolor, red-yellow-green, with a red Latin cross on the center. Source: http://pakistanchristiancongress.com
Joe McMillan, 2 February 2002

Sindh National Front

image by Joe McMillan

Seven horizontal stripes, white and red. The party says it seeks provincial autonomy on the United States, Swiss, and Canadian model.
Source: http://snfsindh.netfirms.com/snf.htm
Joe McMillan, 2 February 2002

Gilgit-Baltistan United Movement (GBUM)

image by Chrystian Kretowicz, 29 March 2008

One of the most prominent political movements in present-day Northern Areas of Pakistan (known also as Boloristan, Dardistan, Karakuram, Balawaristan, etc). It advocates a far-reaching autonomy for Gilgit-Baltistan State within Pakistan with the status similar to that of Azad Kashmir. The other main political movements there: Balawaristan National Front and Karakuram National Movement, demand outright independence for the state under their name.

The image of the flag of Gilgit-Baltistan United Movement was obtained from the Chairman of GBUM, Mr.Manzoor Hussain Parwana.
Chrystian Kretowicz, 29 March 2008