ABSTRACT
Despite the ethnic and linguistic plurality of Pakistan, its communal profile is ‘over tilted’. It is communally a monolithic society, where Muslims constitute 96 per cent of the population, of which 77 per cent are Sunnis and 20 per cent Shias. Other minority groups are Parsis, Buddhists and Bahais, and tribals, like the Kalash and Chitralis in the northern parts of the country. The overwhelming majority of the Muslim population and the constant projection of Pakistan’s Islamic identity underplay its diversity. The plight of Ahmadis worsened with Zia-ul-Haq’s Islamic fervour, that led to the addition of two draconian sections to the Pakistani Penal Code, 298-B and 298-C, imposing stringent conditions on the community. Islamic symbolism or the rhetoric of Ayub Khan’s regime was turned into Islamic populism by the next Pakistani ruler, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. General Zia-ul-Haq’s regime consciously cultivated orthodox Islamic elements and used the state apparatus and the state-run media to promote ‘an orthodox Islamic ideological state’.
