The exigencies of maintaining the West Pakistani political, bureaucratic and military elite in power were the major reason why, after Jinnah’s death, the secular Muslim nationalist path was hurriedly abandoned.

Beginning with Liaquat, moving forward with Ayub Khan and culminating with Zia-ul-Haq, Pakistan’s leaders proceeded to delineate a ‘noble and eternal’ ideology that would give Pakistan ‘a tremendous power of cohesion and resistance’, insisting that it was on the basis of Islam ‘that we fought for and got Pakistan’. Islam, hostility to India, and the Urdu language were identified as the cornerstones of this new national ideology.

In the process of moulding a nation on the basis of Islam, Pakistan has ended up earning for itself the reputation for being home to the world’s angriest Muslims.

The campaign for Pakistan had, in its final stages, become a religious movement even though its leaders initiated it as a formula for resolving post-independence constitutional problems. This created confusion about Pakistan’s raison d’être, which Pakistan’s leadership has attempted to resolve through a state ideology.