IL PROCESSO DI ISLAMIZZAZIONE IN PAKISTAN: 1977-1993

The present article deals with the process of « Islamizatione » undergone by Pakistan in the period 1977-1993. Among the several complex reasons behind Zia ul Haq's « Islamization » was the government's need to legitimise its undemocratic rule, to foster homogeneity in a culturally fragmented country and to attract the support of the ulama and religious parties. This was not, however, a consistent process. The author argues that during periods of relative stability Zia's Islamic reforms were of a cosmetic nature. This is the case, for example, with the laws enacted in 1980-1983 which aimed at reforming the economic and political structure of the country. On the contrary, during periods of political and economic crisis, when the need of the government to legitimize itself was greater, Zia's Islamic laws vere more substantial and had a greater impact on the population. This is the case with the criminal laws promulgated in 1979 and with the quanum-e-shahadat of 1984. After Zia's death, the Islamic laws promulgated in the previous decade were neither abrogated nor amended, and the « Islamization » process continued through courts of law. In particular, since the late 1980s the Pakistani High Courts have increasingly tended to disapply certain laws as un-Islamic. This has been justified mainly by recourse to art. 2-A, which was introduced in the Costitution by the Revival of the 1973 Constitution Order, 1985. In several cases the High Courts have held that this article makes the Objectives Resolution a self-executing and supra-national norm which enables the courts to disapply as un-Islamic even those laws which are legally protected by the Constitution.