Once the tickets from the Pooled Quota is filled, PQWL tickets are issued. Chances of PQWL tickets getting confirmed are usually very low, as in the priority list of waiting list tickets it comes after GNWL.
PQWL - Pooled Quota Waiting List means your travel starts from any intermediate station to the final destination or, Source station till any of the intermediate station or, any two intermediate stations of the train journey. Here in this case PQWL 5 was the Waiting list count of the ticket for which you have booked.
PQWL - Under Pooled Quota Waitlist, passengers travelling between intermediate stations and have a separate waitlist from the general waitlist. 8. RLWL - A Remote Location Waitlist has high chances of confirmation.
PQWL tickets are distributed once the Pooled Quota tickets have sold out. Confirmation of PQWL tickets is unlikely because they are lower on the priority list than even the GNWL tickets.
If you have booked the ticket online through IRCTC and it doesn't get confirmed until charting, IRCTC will refund your amount. Hence traveling on PQWL, no matter what class you're in, will be treated as ticketless travel and penalized accordingly.
You can cancel a PQWL ticket, but you don't have to. If it was purchased online, and remained waiting at the time of charting, your refund will be automatically credited to your account in 3–4 days.
In order the PQWL to be confirmed, there should be passenger with a PQWL ticket on the remaining train run. So, it has a very less probability of getting confirmed.