ABSTRACT
Religion in Pakistan has been a contested issue since its inception. It was even created, claiming, as the homeland for South Asian Muslims. The Pakistan movement was also carried out under the shadow of Muslim identity. The Islamic identity and consciousness of its people have been dominant inuences on their history throughout. Indeed, without that particular background, there could have been no Pakistan. Pakistan is probably the rst state in the world carved out in the name of Islam. This is the irony in the history of Pakistan that its founding father, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, never emphasized on an Islamic state or a state based on religious values. Jinnah envisaged for a secular democratic state where everyone will enjoy equal rights. But Jinnah’s death soon after Partition left the country directionless in its eorts to establish a viable governing system. Pakistan suered a lack of pragmatic political leadership after Jinnah. This political crisis worsened when the military took over power in the late 1950s. Weak political leadership and institutions and time-to-time military intervention blocked its way to become a viable political entity. Apart from history and ideology, Pakistan’s geographical location has also profoundly aected its fortunes as an independent state.
