Islamic Constitutionalism in Pakistan

Abstract

This article questions the lumpy character of understanding Islamic constitutionalism through all-pervasive models operating across time and space and reliance on classical texts as the ultimate reference for jurisprudence. It focuses on conflict and compromise among stakeholders in individual Muslim countries. Pakistan represents a ‘differentiated social formation’ underscored by dichotomy between modernity and tradition. The former is defined by a secular legal-institutional mechanism of authority inherited from British India, which seeks to accommodate the latter’s Islamic agenda through ideological symbolism, legal formalism and — under Gen. Zia’s martial law — cultivation of a divine source of legitimacy to counter the constitutional source of legitimacy in the form of mass mandate. In the face of outcry from modernists, the ulema fell back on a defensive strategy to safeguard their gains.