Book recommendation: Islamic Economic Laws and Regulations Handbook (World Business and Investment Library)
By Yasser Latif Hamdani
The Islamisation process in Pakistan has been debated in detail in our national press, but what most commentators fail to take into account are the social and material conditions surrounding the push for Islamisation especially in the early 1980s. It is the view of this author that Islamisation in Pakistan has been a cynical response by the economic elites of Pakistan to both the forces of socialism and Islamism. In the process the economic elites have been willing to give Islamists a space in the society and influence over non-economic matters provided they keep themselves out of economic matters. This strategy however has only found limited success and a full blow back of this became evident when the entire banking sector was under the Sword of Damocles throughout the 1990s when an ill-advised and ill-conceived judgment of the Federal Shariat Court threatened to bring it down to its knees.
By Yasser Latif Hamdani
The Islamisation process in Pakistan has been debated in detail in our national press, but what most commentators fail to take into account are the social and material conditions surrounding the push for Islamisation especially in the early 1980s. It is the view of this author that Islamisation in Pakistan has been a cynical response by the economic elites of Pakistan to both the forces of socialism and Islamism. In the process the economic elites have been willing to give Islamists a space in the society and influence over non-economic matters provided they keep themselves out of economic matters. This strategy however has only found limited success and a full blow back of this became evident when the entire banking sector was under the Sword of Damocles throughout the 1990s when an ill-advised and ill-conceived judgment of the Federal Shariat Court threatened to bring it down to its knees.
