Formed in: 1985

PML-F was formed when Muhammad Khan Junejo became the president of the united PML. In response, Pir Pagara Syed Shah Mardan Shah-II parted ways with the mother league and formed his own party Pakistan Muslim League - Functional.

Top leaders

• Syed Sibghatullah Shah Rashdi III
• Muzafar Hussain Shah
• Sardar Abdul Raheem
• Ghous Bux Khan Mahar

Key concerns

• Building a knowledge economy with modern infrastructure and world class human resource
• Building globally competitive high value agriculture and manufacturing sectors
• Strengthening national democratic institutions
• Establishing good governance & justice
• Ensuring equitable access to economic opportunity
• Alleviating poverty
• Protecting media freedom
• Providing quality social services to all

2018 elections

PML-F is contesting from the GDA platform, which is fielding candidates from 28 NA seats — all 28 from Sindh.

2013 elections

PML-F won five general seats in the National Assembly and six seats from Sindh. This year, the party is contesting under the banner of the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA).

Previous elections

In the 2008 general election, the PML-F won four general seats and was given one reserved women's seat, raising its total representation to five National Assembly seats. Additionally, the party won eight provincial assembly seats in Sindh and three in Punjab.

In the 2002 general election, the party won four NA seats.

The party contested the elections in 1997 and 1993 but failed to win a seat both times.

Political plays and controversies

• In May 2004, PML-F merged with PML-Q and other parties to form the united PML. However, after two months, in July 2004, Pir Pagara and the PML-F parted ways with the united PML citing differences with the Chaudhry brothers and calling the PML "the Jatt league".

• In August 2017, the Election Commission of Pakistan barred the PML-F from contesting polls this year election for failing to submit its financial records on time.

• In October 2017, under the watchful gaze of Pir Pagara, anti-PPP tribes gathered at Kingri House in Karachi, and formed the Grand Democratic Alliance for the July 25 polls. PML-F leaders will be contesting this year's election from the GDA platform, which is an alliance of five Sindh-based political parties and has the support of some influential political families of the province. The alliance's focus is rural and semi-urban constituencies of Sindh, which are traditional PPP strongholds. The GDA is a coalition of five political parties, including PML-F, Quami Awami Tehreek (QAT), National People’s Party (NPP), Pakistan People’s Party Workers (PPPW) and People’s Muslim League Pakistan.

• Sardar Syed Zahid Hussain Shah, former district president of the PML-F and an influential political figure of the Rohri, Kandhra and Salehpat area, defected to the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) in November 2017.

• Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in January 2018 de-listed 284 political parties — including PML-F— for not complying with the new rules set for political parties under the Elections Act 2017. The action was taken against political parties which failed to submit "a list of at least two thousand members with their signatures or thumb impressions along with copies of their national identity cards" and Rs200,000 as enlistment fee according to Section 202 (2) of the Elections Act 2017 within the stipulated time.