Islamisation of laws in Pakistan has been severally explained as a revival of Islam, as the implementation of the vision of Pakistan formulated as Objective Resolution in 1949 passed by the Constituent Assembly soon after its independence in 1949. It is justified as a requirement of Sovereignty of God and Supremacy of Sharia as principles of Islamic State laid down by groups of religious scholars in 1952. It is described as a policy of the state in the 1973 Constitution. Continuing controversy on all these points has problematised Islamisation of laws in several different ways. On the one hand, it is viewed as an issue of reformation in the religious history of Islam, an expression of Muslim nationalism, and a characteristic of Islamic State. On the other hand it is considered a cause of the rise of fundamentalism and extremism, violation of the principles of democracy and secularism, and lately as a law and empire project.

Problematisation of Islamic law in these terms does not take into account the legal, political and social dynamism of Muslim societies. Essentialised definitions of modernity, state and law are a great hindrance to our understanding of the continuous unfolding of legal and political phenomena. The Islamic modernist approach towards historicising Islamic laws helps understanding modern dynamism. However, continued fascination of modern people with empire paradigm of law and state is compelling western political thought to ideas of state exception.

Muslim political thought has also returned to the idea of the global caliphate with nostalgic vigour. Advancement in political science, anthropology, social theories, social history, social psychology and other disciplines provide deeper understanding of law, state and society. Benefiting from these tools we can practice some archeological research in the origins of legal theories and reconstruct laws that respond to present day needs.

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Muhammad Khalid Masud, Judge of the Shariat Appellate Bench, Supreme Court of Pakistan. This paper was presented at the Pakistan Summit: Disentangling the Politics of ‘Crisis’: The Pakistani State(s), Governance and Culture from Within, International Centre for Muslim and non-Muslim Understanding, Adelaide, 6 July 2015.