Religion Contribution To The Current Collapse Of The Pakistan State

Introduction

Religion was one of the main factors that led to the current and historical political chaos and violence in Pakistan . . During the establishment of Pakistan, Muslims and Hindus were expected to live together as good neighbours (Jalal, 2014). On the contrary, thist led to the collapse of the Pakistani state as religious harmony was abounded and ineffectively adapted. In this essay, I will highlight the main religious conflicts and discriminations in Pakistan during the past century, which eventually caused political instability to our current day.

Discussion

The founding father of Pakistan, M. A. Jinnah, had come up with a strategy which would create a course that would ultimately decline any cases of divisions based on the religious background of people in the community (Dowlah, 2016). Although the foundation of Pakistan was to serve as a native land of the Islams, Jinnah was in the support of the Islam religion acting as a unifying factor among people of diverse religions residing in Pakistan. Jinnah had the belief that the Pakistani’s had a fundamental role in enhancing the matter of religious freedom while upholding the rights of those from the religious minorities. In one of the speeches, Jinnah is quoted stating that an individual might belong to any of the religion in Pakistan but that did not in any way matter to those in leadership. Furthermore, all individuals are citizens of Pakistan and ought to treat one another with equality that is required by the state. However, following various military dictatorships and numerous years of civilian governance that was mainly ineffective, Pakistan failed to advocate the vision of Jinnah which would otherwise ensure that Pakistan is a nation where individuals have the liberty to take part in any religious beliefs that they choose. On the contrary, the support for the ideologies of the Islamist extremists have been on the rise over time which have often been the basis of numerous attacks on the religious minorities. One of the widely renowned editors of the Pakistan’s major newspapers claimed that most of the religious minorities would rather leave their homes as a way of avoiding being massacred by the Islamists extremists. Due to these, there is a huge number of people from Pakistan who are seeking harmony from oppression by moving into other nations bordering Pakistan. The editor also explained that the manner in which the leadership of Pakistan has been taking part in oppressing the religious minorities is quite alarming and shows the intolerance at the very heart of the foundation of the nation (Curtis, 2016).

A growing trend of discrmination and tyranny of individuals who are of minority religious backgrounds in the country of Pakistan was becoming a threat to the democracy of the community at large. The lives of the individuals who were of the minority religious groups were in danger. Over the past century, there was a rapid increase of the Islamist militant groups such as the Sunnis , who came up with several laws that were mainly exclusive for the Muslims. Sunnis also embraced a curriculum of education, which mostly emphasized the Muslim identify rather than taking into account the issue of religious diversity. The events led to the formation of an environment where the ideologies of the extremists would end up flourishing and become more entrenched to most of the people in Pakistan. The religious minorities at that time in Pakistan included Christians, Hindus, and Sikhs. Following the integration of the extremist’s ideologies in most of the sectors, the religious minorities faced a wide range of injustices and there was often a persistent threat of developing violent activities in the communities in Pakistan. Studies reveals that by then the Muslims in the nation Pakistan were accounting for roughly 95 percent of the population while Christians occupied only 2 percent of the population (Curtis, 2016). It was a consequence of such discriminations that most of the leaders of the Muslim religion came up with a perception of instigating various forms of injustices to the religious minorities as a way of encouraging most of such groups to covert to the Muslim ideologies and practices (Curtis, 2016). However, most of the leaders of the religious minorities were often against such ideas which led to violence in the community. These offenses to minorities such as Hindu’s contributed to their allegiance to the Indian state who took credit in the separation and division of Pakistan to a newborn state which is Bangladesh.

Following Jinnah’s death, there was the establishment of the Objectives Resolution in Pakistan which comprised of a set of guidelines which would have to be followed in the creation of a novel constitution. A new constitution was for the new state of Pakistan which allowed the development of laws based on Islamic principles. As such, the adoption of the Objectives Resolution brought about more discomfort among the people living in Pakistan who were non-Muslims (Ispahani, 2017). As a cover for their political greed , the resolution offered some protection to the individuals from the religious minorities by claiming that endowment sought to be made to allow the religious minorities living in Pakistan to have the freedom to practice their beliefs in line with their religious background. Even so, over the next few years, the laws and legislations were utilized to fit the Islamic principles and were adjusted to accommodate for the development of laws which are discriminatory to the religious minorities. The year 1985 saw the integration of the Objectives Resolution into the constitution of the country of Pakistan which made it easier for those in leadership to promote all the laws which would support the freedom of religion in Pakistan. Some of the religious minorities who have suffered significantly as a result of the ideologies of the Islamist extremists in Pakistan include the Ahmadis who perceive themselves as Muslims even though they do not identify with the finality given by Prophet Muhammad. Six years following the independence of Pakistan, Islamists took it upon themselves to declare the Ahmadis as non-Muslims which led to the Muslims calling for the abstraction of one of the cabinet ministers since he was an Ahmadi. Twenty years later, a law passed by the ten President Zulfikar declared the Ahmadis as being non-Muslims and it barred them from claiming that they were Muslims. The Ahmadis were also forbidden from referring to their places of worship as mosque and they were not to take part in any of the Muslim prayers (Curtis, 2016). Such events clearly demonstrate how religion played a vital role towards the collapse of the State of Pakistan.

The change from the vision of Jinnah of upholding a society which is tolerant to religious diversity to a community which oppresses the religious minorities causing them to flee due to the fear of losing their lives has been linked to various factors. Following the creation of Pakistan, there was a widespread debate on the role that religion was to have on the constitutional and legal systems of the nation. Most of the individuals in the leadership system were Muslims. Thus, such individuals were of the opinion that the Islamic principles ought to form the guidelines on how the state ought to operate. The strategic milieu in the regions of Southern Asia over the past almost thirty years and the response of Pakistan to regional trials played a major role in influencing the Islamic trends in the various communities in Pakistan by increasing the religious-based discrimination and violence. Civilian institutions were inefficient at their work and the military leaders were not ready to follow the rule of law which played a momentous role in encouraging the rise of religious extremists in Pakistan. However, the governance of one of the military tyrants, General Zia, was the most noteworthy factor in impending the subject of religious freedom in the nation of Pakistan. Zia came up with rules and policies which were in support of the ideologies of the extremists. For example, Zia supported the legislation on blasphemy by transforming it into a capital offense and enhanced the incorporation of the anti-Ahmadi provisions to be part of the penal code of Pakistan. Expansion of the madrassa network by Zia was aimed at offering support to the Afghanistan jihad who were at war with the Soviets (Curtis, 2016).

Pakistan authorities have over the past years failed on numerous occurrences to indorse the rule of the law when dealing with people who commit injustices and offenses in the appellation of religion. In other cases, rebellions take part in intimidating the lawyers and judges which often averts cases of fair trials and it is also has an impact of limiting the overall prosecutions in incidents such as those involving bomb attacks touching those of religious subgroups. Vehemence against some of the religious minorities such as the Shia community has over the past few decades gone to startling magnitudes. An excellent example was one of the incidents that took place in 2015 where gunmen carried an attack on a bus in the city of Karachi resulting into the death of roughly 45 individuals from the Shia community (Curtis, 2016). The attacks against the Shia people has also been directed towards some of the professionals such as doctors and lawyers.

The eradication of the ideologies of the radicalisms in Pakistan will be a huge task and is likely to take several decades. Over the recent years though, there are some hopes that those in governance led by Nawaz Sharif, who was serving as the Prime Minister, were committed to coming up with strategies which would enhance the uprooting of the extremists in Pakistan while encouraging the support of religious diversity. As the years go by, Pakistan ought to allow for the amendment of the laws which are discriminatory on religious basis, strengthen the courts on how they handle issues concerning religious intolerance, and make some adjustments on the school curricula so that it focuses on embracing the ideology of religious diversity. When making any dialogues with the governing agencies in Pakistan, the United States ought to make the protection of religious subgroups in Pakistan to a matter of urgency which ought to be taken into consideration as a high priority problem which needs urgent intervention. The U.S. must also encourage the leadership of Islamabad to clasp on positive dialogues with the leaders of New Delhi to make sure that they improve their ties since radical groups who thrive on creating regional pressure have also been shown to be on the frontline of spreading the ideologies of the extremists over the various communities in the nation of Pakistan (Curtis, 2016). Till a time when the Islamabad comes to a decision of halting all the Islamist groups of militants, the religious minorities living in Pakistan will always be under threat of violence and discrimination. The authority also have to uphold justice in cases of individuals who utilize religion as a basis of participating in offenses. Among the excellent examples of such cases is the Qadri case. Qadri was involved in the assassination of a governor of Punjab in 2011and the Supreme Court indorsed the decision of death punishment on Qadri to ensure justice prevails (Shah & Nauman, 2016).

Conclusion

Religious differences played a noteworthy role in the collapse of the State of Pakistan. The educational curricula and legislations were mainly developed based on the Islamic principles. Even though Jinnah tried to avert the negative effects of integrating the Islamic principles as the key pillar of developing laws and constitution of Pakistan, the integration would result in division of people in the communities. Pakistan authorities failed to ensure that justice prevailed when some of the Islam extremists took part in offenses in the name of religion.

References

1. Curtis, L. (2016). Religious freedom in Pakistan: Glimmers of light on a darkening horizon. The Review of Faith & International Affairs, 14(2), 23-30. doi:10.1080/15570274.2016.1184439
2. Dowlah, C. (2016). The Bangladesh liberation war, the Sheikh Mujib regime, and contemporary controversies. Maryland: Lexington Books.
3. Ispahani, F. (2017). Purifying the land of the pure: A history of Pakistan’s religious minorities. Noida: Oxford University Press.
4. Manchin, G., & Moore, J. (2018, July 24). Op-Ed: Stop the ‘weaponization’ of religion in Pakistani politics. USCIRF. Retrieved from https://www.uscirf.gov/news-room/op-eds/op-ed-stop-the-weaponization-religion-in-pakistani-politics
5. Shah, S., & Nauman, Q. (2016, February 29). Pakistan executes assassin of Punjab Governor. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from https://www.wsj.com/articles/pakistan-executes-assassin-of-punjab-governor-1456728679