Islamization in Pakistan

Islamization or Shariazation, has a long history in Pakistan since the 1950s, but it became the primary policy, or "centerpiece" of the government of <a href="/facts/Muhammad_Zia-ul-Haq/JwDlPsce">General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq</a>, the ruler of <a href="/facts/Pakistan/cbIsvJy1">Pakistan</a> from 1977 until his death in 1988.
Zia is often identified as "the person most responsible for turning Pakistan into a global center for <a href="/facts/Political_Islam/VzojFnNS">political Islam</a>." Zia-ul-Haq committed himself to enforcing his interpretation of Nizam-e-Mustafa ("Rule of the prophet" <a href="/facts/Muhammad/5VcA7XrT">Muhammad</a>), establishing separate Shariat judicial courts and court benches to judge legal cases using Islamic doctrine.
New criminal offenses (of adultery, fornication, and types of blasphemy), and new punishments (of whipping, amputation, and stoning to death), were added to Pakistani law. <a href="/facts/Riba/grdupR5D">Interest</a> payments for bank accounts were replaced by "profit and loss" payments. <a href="/facts/Zakat/yLQ4Mygk">Zakat</a> charitable donations became a 2.5% annual tax. School textbooks and libraries were overhauled to remove un-Islamic material.
Offices, schools, and factories were required to provide praying space.
Zia bolstered the influence of the <a href="/facts/Ulama/7vMcAgBV">ulama</a> (Islamic clergy) and the Islamic parties, and conservative scholars were often on television. Tens of thousands of activists from the <a href="/facts/Jamaat-e-Islami_Pakistan/nmkjxwl3">Jamaat-e-Islami</a> party were appointed to government posts to ensure the continuation of his agenda after his death. Conservative ulama were added to the <a href="/facts/Council_of_Islamic_Ideology/1XfQo4D8">Council of Islamic Ideology</a>.
The effect on Pakistan's national cohesion of state-sponsored Islamization were mixed. In 1984 a <a href="/facts/1984_Pakistani_Islamisation_programme_referendum/yNWUts3z">referendum</a> gave Zia and the <a href="/facts/Islamization/0YA0kCSG">Islamization</a> program 97.7% approval in official results. However, there have been protests against the laws and their enforcement during and after Zia's reign. <a href="/facts/Shia/JIQl7ooz">Shia</a>-<a href="/facts/Sunni/WYo0zeq0">Sunni</a> religious riots broke out over differences in Islamic jurisprudence (<a href="/facts/Fiqh/YBmxekkY">fiqh</a>) – in particular, over how Zakat donations would be distributed. 
There were also differences among Sunni Muslims. Women's and human rights groups opposed incarceration of rape victims under <a href="/facts/Hudood_Ordinances/sTvcAy3a">hadd</a> punishments, and new laws that valued women's testimony (Law of Evidence) and blood money compensation (<a href="/facts/Diyat/lVnIttV8">diyat</a>) at half that of a man. Religious minorities and human rights groups opposed the "vaguely worded" <a href="/facts/Blasphemy_law_in_Pakistan/8LwXLAU9">Blasphemy Law</a> and the "malicious abuse and arbitrary enforcement" of it.
Possible motivations for the Islamisation programme included Zia's personal piety (most accounts agree that he came from a religious family), desire to gain political allies, to "fulfill Pakistan's raison d'etre" as a Muslim state, and/or the political need to legitimise what was seen by some Pakistanis as his "repressive, un-representative martial law regime". Under the rule of <a href="/facts/Pervez_Musharraf/D6hhCwqL">Pervez Musharraf</a>, the <a href="/facts/Muttahida_Majlis-i-Amal/ASd40K2W">Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal</a> (MMA), a coalition of Islamist political parties in Pakistan, called for the increased Islamization of the government and society, specifically taking an anti-Hindu stance. The MMA led the opposition in the national assembly, held a majority in the NWFP Provincial Assembly, and was part of the ruling coalition in Balochistan. However, some members of the MMA made efforts to eliminate their rhetoric against Hindus.

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Islamization in Pakistan