Pakistan - Religion, Nationality, Constitution

For Pakistan, or for Islam?
For Pakistan to haul itself out of crisis, the ultimate goal must be for its people to put their nationality before their religion
By Rakesh Mani and Zehra Ahmed - Guardian

As Pakistan wastes away in its existential crisis, a fundamental question about the nature of the country is coming to the fore: are its citizens Pakistanis who happen to be Muslims, or are they Muslims who happen to be Pakistanis? Which comes first, flag or faith?

Pakistan is Already an Islamic State
By Ali Eteraz - Dissent Magazine

.... The essential problem in Pakistan is its flawed constitutional framework, which forces every citizen to refer to their idiosyncratic and personal views on life through the lens of “Islam.” Such a state of affairs has the effect of concealing every political, material and economic demand behind theological verbiage, and that situation ultimately favors religious hard-liners and militants who are willing to use violence.

Pakistan will not be rid of such religion-based conflict until it addresses the problem of its 1973 Constitution. That document’s constitutional Islamization engenders a cultural competition over who controls Islam—a conflict which, thanks to the Soviet war in Afghanistan and then 9/11, has become politicized, militarized, and weaponized.