Major problems in Pakistan stem from issues surrounding religious identity and the role of Islam in the state. While Pakistan was envisioned as a democratic state that guaranteed equal rights and protections for all citizens regardless of religion, in practice religious minorities faced restrictions. Over time, military and conservative religious leaders have increasingly emphasized Islamic principles in the constitution and laws, prioritizing Islam over democracy and restricting the rights of religious minorities. This has led to an ongoing debate over Pakistan's national identity and whether it should be defined primarily in religious or geographic terms.
1. Major problems in pakistan
Religious issues
Presented by Afshan Mukhtiar
2. ADDRESS OF THE FOUNDER OF PAKISTAN QUAID-E-AZAM MUHAMMAD ALI JINNAH
ON 11TH AUGUST, 1947TO 1ST CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY
”every one of you, no matter to what community he belongs, no matter what relations he had with you in the past, no matter
what is his color, caste or creed, is first, second and last a citizen of this State with equal rights, privileges and obligations there
will be no end to the progress you will make.”
“You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other places of worship in this
State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed — that has nothing to do with the business of the State”
”in course of time Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense,
because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the State.”
3. INTRODUCTION
• National identity remains a very serious issue in Pakistan today. There has never been a clear answer to
the question of how many nations live within the country, one or more.
• The religious factor has played the central role in the search for a national identity in Pakistan. The
Muslim League’s response to the identity question was its slogan of the early 1950s: “One Nation, One
State, One Language”. Islam and the Urdu language were defined as the foundations of the Pakistani
nation (two other components made up the state ideology: Kashmir as an inalienable part of Pakistan,
and the armed forces as the guarantee of the country’s development and integrity
• The constitutional process, accompanied by tensions in communal relations, bears witness to serious
ideological differences in society over the role religion should play in social and political life. Was
Pakistan created for Islam or for Muslims is an important question. How did it happen that a religion
which was supposed to be a guiding force for the lives of Muslims ceased to serve the purpose and
started creating hindrance in the state affairs?
4. State Narrative
• Ideology building
• Two Nation Theory
• Emergence of Muslim Identity
• Pakistan Movement
• Allama Iqbal Address
• Pakistan Resolution 23rd March 1940
5. • Post Independence Scenario
• Dilemma of Muslim League
• Power Vacuum
• Joined Hands With Majlis e Ahrar
• Objective Resolution
6. OBJECTIVE RESOLUTION 1949
• The resolution stated that Pakistan must “observe in full the principles of democracy,
freedom, equality, tolerance and social justice, as required by Islam, must give adequate
guarantees for minorities to freely practice their faith and develop their cultures, and must
adequately protect the lawful interests of minorities and backward and oppressed classes.”
• Liaquat Ali Khan did not see any contradiction between prioritizing Islam and upholding
basic democratic principles. As he stated on May 3, 1950, “We pledge our loyalty to the
principles of democracy, freedom, equality, tolerance and social justice in accordance with
Islam. This does not mean theocracy. Islam does not imply that the clergy has the leading
role… No, our concept of democracy is even more comprehensive than the one based on
universal suffrage and government by the majority. We call all of this the Islamic way of life,
and we adhere to it because, as Muslims, we cannot follow any other ideology.”
7. Difference Between theory and Practice
In practice, the priority given to Islam in social and political life lead to restrictions on the
basic rights and freedoms of non Muslim citizens.
According to some notable ullamas restrictions on non-Muslims’ social and political
activities were justified by the need to preserve internal peace and ensure religious
minorities’ security
that non-Muslims should not play important roles in Pakistan and, in particular, should not
be allowed to hold senior government posts
Jogandar Nath Mandal Resignation Letter
8. Whether sovereignty belongs to ‘the people’,
collectively expressed through the state, or to God?
The Constitution 1956
• "the authority to be exercised by the people of
Pakistan within the limits prescribed by Him”
• "the Quran and the Sunnah"
• Objective Resolution should get included in the
in operative clauses of the constitutions.
The Constitution 1962
• "the authority exercisable by the people is a
sacred trust.“
• “Islam”
• Objective Resolution only as a preamble and
the power of “Ijtihad” should be vested in the
Supreme Court.
9. • Bengali Nationalism wins in 1971
• Failure of Ideology?
• “I have been Pukhtoon for 4000 years,
Muslim for 1400 years and Pakistani for 40
years” Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan
10. The Post Bangladesh Search For National Identity
• What are the links that bind the people of Pakistan?
• What is the soul and personality of Pakistan?
• What is our national identity?
11. Two Answers to One Question
Geographic Identity
• Post war Pakistan was ethnically more
homogenous than the pre war Pakistan.
• Country has only eventually found its real
identity after the 1971 war. Others found
geological, geographic, ethnic, and historical
grounds for regarding the Indus Valley and its
western and northern mountain marches as a
distinct national unit separate from the rest of
the South Asia.
Islamic Identity
• Renewed and reinforced emphasis upon the
Islamic roots of Pakistan
• If we let go the ideology of Islam, we cannot
hold together as a nation by any other means . .
. If the Arabs, the Turks, the Iranians, God
forbid, give up Islam, the Arabs yet remain
Arabs, the Turks remain Turks, the Iranians
remain Iranians, but what do we remain if we
give up Islam? (Prof. Waheed uz Zaman)
12. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto
• Fundamental changes in the relationship between State and religious
organizations
• New national identity based on Anti Indian, Pan Islamic themes
• “Middle Easternizing” of Pakistan , Islamic Reforms
• Socialism to Islamic Socialism (Musawaat e Muhammadi)
• Declaration of Ahmadiya as Non Muslims (2nd amendment)
13. Comparison between the Constitutions
1956
• The office of Prime Minister was open for both
Muslims and Non Muslims.
• Quaid e Azam’s words were included in the preamble
of the constitution that “Pakistan would be
democratic state based on Islamic principles of social
justice.”
• The oaths of office were devoid of religious content
and were completely secular in nature
• Advisory council for Islamic research, expenses
defrayed through a special tax imposed only on
Muslims.
• Fundamental rights of freedom of speech and
expression (no space for blasphemy laws under the
constitution).
1973
• Both President and Prime Minister offices
reserved for Muslims
• The statement of Quaid e Azam was annexed in
1984 to the constitution
• The oaths have been completely Islamic in
nature. There is a reference now of God
• Federal Shari’a court and council of Islamic
ideology , expenses are borne by all citizens.
• Instrumentalised Muslim majoritarian
tendencies
• Turned Pakistan into a Theocracy
14. Mullah-Garrison Alliance
The military, which has dominated the Pakistani state since the mid-1950s, has
embraced a tripartite policy that emphasizes Islam as a national unifier, rivalry with
India as the principal objective of the state’s foreign policy, and an alliance with the
United States/West as a means to defray the costs of Pakistan’s massive military
expenditures.
The anti‐India, anti‐secularist and anti‐ communist views of the ulema are crucial in
understanding the military‐ulema alliance, which has a common interest in keeping at
bay a political elite ostensibly committed to democracy and Presidentialism.
16. Islamization during Zia Era
Zia made Islam his main political constituency, lent him
political allies. Turned Pakistan into a global center of Islam.
“It proves that Pakistan, which was created in the name of
Islam, will continue to survive only if it sticks to Islam. That is
why I consider the introduction of Islamic system as an
essential prerequisite for the country.” Pakistan Times, July 7,
1977, p. 8.
“A strong presidential form of government would be more in
keeping with the "thinking and psyche of Muslims.”
“ Muslims "believed in one God, one Prophet, and one Book,
and their mentality is that they should be ruled by one man.”
Iran Revolution- Afghan Jihad- Madrassah Culture- Sectarian
Violence
17. ‘Nizam e Mustafa’
‘National Cohesion under Islam’
• Separate Shariyat judicial courts and court benches to to judge legal cases using Islamic doctrine
• New criminal offenses for adultery, fornication and types of blasphemy
• New punishments of whipping, amputation and stoning to death were added in to Pakistani law
• Interest payments for bank accounts replaced by ‘profit and loss’ payments
• Zakat became a 2.5% annual tax
• Removal of unislamic material from textbooks and libraries
• Schools and work places were required to provide praying space
• 10,000s of activists from the Jamaat e Islami were appointed to government posts
• Conservative scholars became fixture on national tv
18. Islamization During 90s
Benazir Bhutto
Although an outspoken opponent of Zia’s Islam,
she didn’t dismantle the Federal Shariyat Court,
and the Shariyat Appellate Bench nor repeal
Hudood and Ramazan ordinance
Abolition of whipping
Released women prisoners especially charged
under Hudood ordinance, forbade whipping
sentence
Muhammad Nawaz Sharif
• Qisas and Hudood ordinance bill passed in 1997
• 15th constitutional amendment bill Shariyat Bill
• The bill empowered the prime minister to enforce
what he thought was right and to forbid what is
wrong
• To enforce shariya, to establish Salah, to
administer Zakat, to promoteAmr bil M’aruf
Nahi anil Munkar, to eradicate corruption, social
economic justice etc
19. Pervez Musharraf
Enlightened moderation
I say to my brother Muslims: The time
for renaissance has come. The way forward is
through enlightenment. We must concentrate on human
resource development through the alleviation of poverty
and through education, health care and social justice. If
this is our direction, it cannot be achieved through
confrontation. We must adopt a path of moderation and a
conciliatory approach to fight the common belief that
Islam is a religion of militancy in conflict with
modernization, democracy and secularism. All this must
be done with a realization that, in the world we live in,
fairness does not always rule.
2002 OIC Summit Conference in Malaysia.
20. Religious Parties in General Elections
• Jamat e islami (JI)
• Jamiyat ulama e Islam (JUI)
• Jamiyat ulama e Pakistan (JUP)
• Sepah Sahaba pakistan (SSP)
• Tehreek Labaik Ya Rasool Allah (TLYRA)
21. End Note
• In spite of its manifest weaknesses and failures, political Islam is indisputably
a powerful and potentially destabilizing phenomenon in Pakistan—a country
whose surface appearance of Islamic homogeneity masks a profoundly
diverse society. How political Islam evolves in coming years will inevitably
impact upon the political evolution of Pakistan itself—whether, in other
words, it will proceed in the direction of greater respect for cultural diversity,
religious tolerance in particular, or whether it will move in the direction of
increased religious exclusiveness, extremism, and orthodox. Only time will
tell.
22. For now citizens are trapped between the state and the religion, without the possibility
of administrative or legal remedy from the state or the possibility of lawful political
opposition outside its sphere of control. Failure to observe the distinction between the
state, politics and religion therefore tends to severely undermine the peace, stability
and healthy development of the whole society. Those who are denied the services and
protection of the state as well as effective participation in politics will either withdraw
their cooperation or resort to violent resistance in the absence of less drastic remedies.
This necessary balancing of competing claims and tense relationships can be mediated
through principles and mechanisms of constitutionalism, rule of law and the protection
of the equal human rights of all citizens. But these principles and institutions cannot
succeed without the active and determined participation of all citizens, which is
unlikely if people believe them to be inconsistent with those religious beliefs and
cultural norms that influence their political behavior.
