ROLE OF RIGHT WING POLITICAL PARTIES IN PAKISTAN’S POLITICS: ANALYZING NEW TRENDS AND PATTERNS FOR FUTURE

Abstract

Islamization has returned to be the dominant state ideology in Pakistan over the past few years. this era coincides with the political status of the military-dominated regime after the overthrow of the Pakistan People's Party's government by the military dictator Zia ul Haq in May 1977. Because of this coincidence, one is also tempted to elucidate away the status of Islamization as yet another example of the instrumental use of Islam by a regime so as to determine its political legitimacy. However, to take such a view leads us to ignore or minimize the role of social and political forces outside the military which have played a decisive (perhaps even the determinant) role in establishing Islamization as the state ideology in Pakistan. These social and political forces have after all used the military institution for political functions so as to get access to extra-constitutional powers provided by law in a shot to alter basically the political structure of the state. The objective of this article is to examine these forces in some detail. More specifically, it will seek to explore the nature and determinants of Islamization and its consequences.