THE ISLAMIC LAW (THE SHARIA) IN THE CONSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURE OF PAKISTAN

Abstract

The assimilation of divine laws into the man-made set of rules is not an easy task. The matter of the interpretation of divine laws and their conversion from jurist’s law into positive law is another difficult task to make the adoption of divine laws into the legal structure of a state. The Muslim states try to achieve the goal of enforcing the Islamic laws in their constitutions along with the working of their legal structures that protect their religious identity by not giving up their historical, religious, and cultural backgrounds. This article analyses the adoption of the Islamic Laws (the Sharia) into the democratic constitutional structure of Pakistan, in a social context where religious groups, owing the wills of a fair portion of the society, have remained on the move to get Sharia declared as state law while secular groups have been advocating the democratic constitutional structure of the state. To analyse the constitutional structure of Pakistan in the context of Islamic Law (Sharia), the author uses references from the constitutional structure of some other leading Muslim states that give various treatment to Islamic Laws (Sharia) ranging from pure, mixed and secular systems. This study concludes that leading Muslim states adopt Sharia into their constitutional structures by giving Sharia various treatments. Likewise, Pakistani constitution is expressly dominated by Sharia but instead of directly applying Sharia as a legal system of the state, the constitution, as well as legal structure of Pakistan, declare Islam as official religion and all the rules are made in consideration with the rules of Islamic Law (Sharia)