The Islamist Impulse Haunting Pakistan

It is a truism to say that the elite in Pakistan has used Islam to perpetuate its hold on power ever since the state came into being in 1947. The judiciary in Pakistan has been the latest to emphasise its Islamist credentials to legitimise its rise as an important constituent of the influential ‘quartet’ that is ruling Pakistan today.

While it is debatable whether the current phenomenon of judicial activism will survive the tenure of the incumbent Chief Justice of the Pakistani Supreme Court, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, it is certain that the judiciary may have sealed the prospects of all debates in Pakistan on whether Pakistan should be a secular or an Islamic state. Initially conceived as a Muslim state, Pakistan has advanced incrementally since the days of Jinnah from a notional ‘Islamic republic’ to a state where Islam has occupied prime of place.