Wither Pakistan? The Rise of the Barelvi Movement in Pakistani Politics and Jinnah's Pakistan

Speaker: Professor Ishtiaq Ahmed, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Stockholm University; Visiting Professor Government College University; and Honorary Senior Fellow, Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore. Latest publications, The Punjab Bloodied, Partitioned and Cleansed (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2012)

 

Chair: Ambassador T.C. A. Raghavan, former Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan

 

There is a liberal-left constituency in Pakistan which argues that Jinnah wanted to create a secular state. The speaker will  argue that irrespective of what Jinnah wanted Pakistan was bound to be a Muslim/Islamic state. He mobilized the Barelvi ulema and pirs (custodians of Sufi Shrines) to win support of Muslims to the cause of Pakistan. They supported him and Pakistan on the assumption that Pakistan will be an Islamic state based on the Islamic law, Sharia. Now they enjoy political initiative in Pakistan and want their version of Islam to become state ideology. The struggle is going to be over what it means for the rights of citizens and especially the minorities