Drought stress directly affects the growth along with productivity of plants by altering plant water status. The present study was carried out to characterize the genetic variability for seedling and morpho-physiological parameters in different sunflower genotypes under water stressed conditions. A total twenty seven genotypes including two hybrids, eight advanced lines and seventeen accessions of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) were tested against drought stress at seedling stages by applying Polyethylene glycol (PEG). Significant means were calculated among traits using analysis of variance (ANOVA) whereas, correlation and principle component analysis also confirmed that germination percentage, root length, shoot length, chlorophyll content, stomatal frequency are positively linked with each other hence, these traits were responsible for most of variation among genotypes. The cluster analysis showed that genotypes Ausun, line-1, line-2, line-3, 17578, 17570, line-6, line-7 and 17562 are more diverse among all the genotypes.