Islam and politics in Pakistan : 1906-1985 political and constitutional perspective

Abstract

Religious authority intermingled with political leadership for centuries; the nexus between the two was undermined with the emergence of Age of Enlightenment1. In the enduring period, phenomena like Separation of Church and State and Secularism, which stipulated disjunction between organised religion and nation-state, received far-reaching intellectual recognition. A secular state essentially espouses the principle of equal, rather than preferential, treatment of its nationals or citizens. However, the rise of secularism ushered in a period of pervasive polarisation along ideological lines. Various contemporary Muslim dissidents like Sayyid Al-Qutb and Moulana Moudoodi denounced secularism as western values proliferated into the Islamic world. In doing so, they launched manifold political movements in the name of Muslim revivalism. Moreover, politicization of Islam remained their prime modus operandi. Pakistan’s ideology envisioned by the founding fathers of the country, albeit obscure in nature, was based on the two nation theory that underlay Muslim nationalism, rather than a theocratic2 prototype of Islam. However, after the inception of the country, Islamism gained currency as dominance of religio-political groups/parties bolstered in politics and civil-military bureaucracy. The Objectives Resolution of 1949 had prepared the ground for rampant influx of Islam into state legislation and machinery. However, it was only after the dismemberment of the country in 1971 that an array of stringent laws and ordinances were promulgated by the regimes of Z.A.Bhutto and General Zia-ul-Haq that enunciated and legitimized Islamisation of the state of Pakistan.