The relationship between Islam and the Pakistani state represents one of the most consequential and tragic political manipulations in modern history. While Pakistan was founded as a homeland for Muslims, its creator, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, explicitly envisioned a secular, democratic state where faith would be a private matter. This vision, however, was gradually supplanted by a calculated project to transform Islam from a cultural identity into a potent instrument of state power. This process reached its destructive apex under the military dictatorship of General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (1977-1988). Zia’s systematic “IslamizationIslamization Full Description:The state-led process of bringing Pakistan’s legal, educational, and social systems into conformity with a specific interpretation of Islamic law. This was most aggressively pursued under the military dictatorship of General Zia-ul-Haq to consolidate power. Islamization transformed the identity of the state. Originally founded as a homeland for Muslims (a nationalist project), the state shifted toward becoming a theocratic fortress. Laws regarding evidence, banking, and social conduct were rewritten to align with strict Sharia interpretations, and the education system was overhauled to emphasize religious ideology over secular subjects.
Critical Perspective:This process was primarily a tool of political legitimacy. Lacking a democratic mandate, the military regime used religion to sanitize its rule and silence opposition, labelling dissent as anti-Islamic. The structural legacy has been the marginalization of religious minorities and women, and the empowerment of hard-line clerical groups that now challenge the authority of the state itself.
Read more” was not merely a matter of personal piety; it was a comprehensive political strategy to legitimize his rule, forge a new national identity, and pursue regional strategic goals. This essay will argue that Zia’s program fundamentally reconfigured Pakistan’s legal system, social fabric, and foreign policy, creating a lasting legacy of institutionalized religious conservatism, sectarian violence, and militant Islamist groups that continues to challenge the state’s stability and shape its domestic and international politics today.
The Foundational Ambiguity: Jinnah’s Vision vs. Early State-Building
The tension between a secular state structure and an Islamic identity was embedded in Pakistan’s DNA. Jinnah’s famed August 11, 1947, speech called for a religion-blind citizenship, yet he and other leaders also invoked Islamic principles to mobilize support for the new state. This ambiguity was quickly codified into law. The 1949 Objectives Resolution, which became the preamble to all of Pakistan’s subsequent constitutions, declared that sovereignty over the universe belonged to Allah, but that it was delegated to the state through its people. This created a permanent theological-political contradiction at the heart of the nation’s founding document.
In the decades that followed, successive rulers made tentative use of Islamic sentiment. Ayub Khan, a secular modernizer, still felt compelled to pay lip service to Islamic ideals. His successor, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, in a bid to outflank his religious political opponents, declared the Ahmadiyya community non-Muslims in 1974 and banned alcohol for Muslims. These actions demonstrated the growing potency of religion as a political weapon and set a precedent for more radical measures. However, it was Bhutto’s own overthrow that unleashed the full force of state-sponsored Islamization.
The Zia Revolution: Architect of the Modern Islamic State
General Zia-ul-Haq seized power in a military coup in 1977, overthrowing the democratically elected Bhutto. Lacking a popular mandate, Zia turned to Islam as his primary source of legitimacy. He famously declared that his mission was to create a “truly Islamic” system in Pakistan. This was not an organic evolution but a top-down, ruthless imposition designed to consolidate his power and create a new political order.
Zia’s Islamization project was comprehensive and targeted every pillar of society:
· The Legal Onslaught: The most damaging and lasting reforms were in the legal sphere. The Hudood Ordinances (1979) instituted harsh punishments—such as flogging, amputation, and stoning—for offences like theft, adultery, and fornication. These laws were based on a rigid interpretation of Islamic jurisprudence and had a particularly devastating impact on women, making it nearly impossible for rape victims to obtain justice without being charged themselves. Simultaneously, Zia strengthened Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. Amendments to Sections 295-B and 295-C of the Penal Code made defiling the Quran punishable by life imprisonment and insulting the Prophet Muhammad punishable by mandatory death. These laws became a powerful tool for persecuting religious minorities, settling personal vendettas, and silencing dissent, creating a climate of fear and intolerance.
· Educational Jihad: Understanding that long-term control required shaping minds, Zia launched a systematic reform of the education system. The national curriculum was rewritten to promote a conservative, Sunni-Islamic worldview, glorifying jihad and inculcating a sense of religious superiority. Simultaneously, the state actively promoted the growth of madrassas (religious seminaries), many of which were funded by Gulf money and taught a Deobandi or Wahhabi-inspired syllabus. These institutions provided free education and boarding to millions of poor Pakistanis, but they also became factories for producing a generation indoctrinated in a rigid, often militant, interpretation of Islam.
· Shariatization: To ensure the permanence of his project, Zia established the Federal Shariat Court in 1980. This court was empowered to examine any law and strike it down if it was found to be repugnant to the injunctions of Islam. This embedded a theocratic element directly into the state’s judicial architecture, creating a permanent mechanism for challenging legislation on religious grounds.
Foreign Policy as Jihad: The Afghan Crucible
Zia’s domestic Islamization project found its perfect counterpart in his foreign policy. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 presented a strategic opportunity. Zia positioned Pakistan as the frontline stateFrontline State
Full Description:A geopolitical label applied to Pakistan due to its strategic location bordering Afghanistan. It describes the country’s role as the primary conduit for US and Western intervention in the region, first against the Soviets and later during the “War on Terror.” Being a Frontline State has been the central engine of Pakistan’s foreign policy and economy. By positioning itself as the indispensable ally of the West in global conflicts, Pakistan secured massive inflows of military and economic aid. This “geopolitical rent” has often kept the state afloat during economic crises.
Critical Perspective:This reliance on foreign wars has created a “dependency trap.” Critics argue that the state effectively rents out its geography and sovereignty to foreign powers. This dynamic has flooded the country with weapons and radical ideology, leading to the “Kalashnikov culture” and internal terrorism that threatens the state’s own stability. It represents a survival strategy that prioritizes short-term aid over long-term autonomy.
Read more in the US-backed jihad against the Soviet Union. This alliance with the United States and Saudi Arabia provided Zia with massive financial and military aid, which he used to bolster both his regime and his Islamization agenda.
Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) directorate became the central command for the Afghan jihad. It coordinated the flow of money and weapons from the US and Saudi Arabia to the mujahideen, and it actively nurtured and trained the most radical Islamist factions, believing they would be the most effective fighters. Zia and the ISI deliberately fostered a “jihad cultureJihad Culture
Full Description:The societal and political normalization of militant religious struggle. Originally cultivated by the state (with US and Saudi support) to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan, it eventually permeated domestic society, creating a network of armed non-state actors. Jihad Culture refers to the blowback of the Cold War. To fight a proxy war, the state empowered religious seminaries (madrassas) and militant groups. Over time, these groups turned their focus inward, targeting religious minorities, distinct Muslim sects, and the state itself.
Critical Perspective:This phenomenon represents the privatization of violence. By using non-state actors as tools of foreign policy (in Afghanistan and Kashmir), the state eroded its own monopoly on force. Critics argue that the state created a “Frankenstein’s monster” that it can no longer fully control, leading to a cycle of sectarian violence and instability that deters investment and social progress.
Read more”—glorifying holy war, celebrating martyrdom, and portraying the conflict in Afghanistan as a religious duty for all Muslims. Thousands of young men from Pakistan and across the Muslim world were recruited into these jihadist networks, which were given safe haven and state support.
The blowback from this policy was catastrophic and predictable. When the Soviets withdrew in 1989, the vast infrastructure of jihad—the battle-hardened militants, the training camps, the arms caches, and the ideological fervor—did not simply disappear. It turned inward. The militants and their ideology, once nurtured by the state for foreign policy goals, now posed a direct threat to the state itself.
The Unraveling: The Legacy of Islamization in Contemporary Pakistan
Zia died in a plane crash in 1988, but the forces he unleashed continued to shape Pakistan’s destiny. His legacy is a nation grappling with the consequences of a revolution it cannot reverse.
· Sectarian Warfare: The promotion of a particular Sunni identity during the Zia era exacerbated sectarian tensions. The 1980s saw the rise of violent Sunni extremist groups like Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) and its even more violent offshoot, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which declared Shia Muslims heretics and legitimate targets for murder. This led to a brutal cycle of sectarian violence that has claimed thousands of lives and continues to plague the country.
· The Rise of the Taliban: Pakistan’s policy of supporting jihadist proxies continued after the Soviet withdrawal. The ISI played a key role in the creation and rise of the Afghan Taliban in the 1990s, seeking a pliable government in Kabul to provide “strategic depth” against India. This policy culminated in the creation of the Pakistani Taliban (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP) in 2007, which waged a bloody insurgency inside Pakistan, attacking military installations, schools, and public spaces, and explicitly challenging the state’s authority.
· Institutional Entrenchment: The ideology of Islamization became deeply embedded within key state institutions. Elements within the military and intelligence services continued to distinguish between “good” jihadis (those who fight in Kashmir or Afghanistan) and “bad” jihadis (those who turn their guns on the state), a policy that has proven unsustainable and disastrous. The judiciary, particularly the lower courts, remains heavily influenced by the legal and ideological framework established by Zia, making reform of the Hudood and blasphemy laws a political third rail.
The State’s Dilemma: Creator Versus Victim
Modern Pakistan is thus trapped in a paradox of its own making. The state, through Zia’s policies, was the primary architect of the Islamist infrastructure and ideology that now threatens it. It is simultaneously the creator and a victim of these forces. While the military has launched major operations against groups like the TTP, it has been reluctant to completely dismantle the jihadist network, viewing some factions as still useful for its regional interests, particularly against India in Kashmir. This duality has crippled counter-terrorism efforts and fostered a pervasive sense of ambiguity in the state’s approach to militancy.
Furthermore, any attempt to roll back Zia’s legal legacy, particularly the blasphemy laws, is met with violent resistance from powerful religious parties and street mobs, making meaningful reform nearly impossible for any civilian government. The state’s instrumental use of religion has created a political reality where it is now held hostage by the very forces it empowered.
Conclusion: The Inextricable Fusion
The transformation of Islam into a political tool under Zia-ul-Haq represents a definitive break in Pakistan’s history. It was a deliberate, state-driven project that fused religious identity with political power in an unprecedented way. The consequences—a fractured society, institutionalized discrimination, a culture of sectarian and militant violence, and a foreign policy haunted by the ghosts of its own creations—are the defining challenges of contemporary Pakistan.
Zia’s legacy demonstrates the profound danger of instrumentalizing faith for political and strategic ends. The genie of religious extremism, once released from the bottle of state patronage, proved impossible to put back. The enduring question for Pakistan is whether it can ever disentangle the state from the political tool it so effectively forged, or if the fusion of mosque and military, faith and policy, has become a permanent and inescapable feature of the nation’s troubled landscape. The answer will determine not only Pakistan’s future but the stability of an entire region.
Further Reading:
· Haqqani, Husain. Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military. Carnegie Endowment, 2005.
· Nasr, Seyyed Vali Reza. The Vanguard of the Islamic Revolution: The Jama’at-i Islami of Pakistan. University of California Press, 1994.
· Kennedy, Charles H. Islamization of Laws and Economy: Case Studies on Pakistan. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1996.
· Rashid, Ahmed. Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia. Yale University Press, 2000.
· Abbas, Hassan. Pakistan’s Drift into Extremism: Allah, the Army, and America’s War on Terror. Routledge, 2005.
· Weiss, Anita M. Islamic Reassertion in Pakistan: The Application of Islamic Laws in a Modern State. Syracuse University Press, 1986.
· Zaman, Muhammad Qasim. The Ulama in Contemporary Islam: Custodians of Change. Princeton University Press, 2002.
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