JAM˓IYAT-E ˓ULAMA-E PAKISTAN

The Jam˓iyat-e ˓Ulama-e Pakistan (JUP) is a Barelwidominated religious party established in 1947 under the leadership of Abu al-Hasanat (1896–1961) and ˓Abd al-Hamid Badayuni (1898–1970). The JUP attempted to give legitimacy to the cause of Pakistan and the Muslim League, contrary to the Jam˓iyat-e ˓Ulama-e Hind (JUH), and also in some contrast to the Jam˓iyat-e ˓Ulama-e Islam (JUI). The JUP proclaims Ahmad Reza Khan, the founder of the Barelwi movement, as the first to advocate the two-nation theory, which led to the partition of Pakistan and India. Engaged in social activities—mainly the settlement of refugees in Sindh and rural Punjab—the JUP remained politically insignificant for more than two decades. It established, however, a Sufi organization in 1948 and a student wing in 1968, when its leader Shah Ahmad Nurani (born 1926) started propagating Islamization. In 1973, Nurani was nominated for the position of prime minister by the member parties of the United Democratic Front against the Pakistan People's Party (PPP). When in 1977 the JUP stood for the establishment of the Muhammadan System, it united the Islamic parties in the Pakistan National Alliance (PNA) against Zulfiker Ali Bhutto's PPP. After 1977, JUP changed sides several times—sympathizing at times even with its main adversaries, the JI (Jama˓at-e Islami) and JUI. Its integrity thus suffered and therefore it split into two major factions (Nurani faction and ˓Abd al-Sattar faction). Its success lies in its reliance on oral tradition, its drawing its constituency from the followers of Sufi pirs—preferably Qadiris—observance of ritual traditions associated with saint worship, and usage of millenarian postulates and symbols mediated in a multimedial staging. Like the JUI, the JUP runs an umbrella organization of madaris (Islamic schools), and has been actively defending the nationalization of pious foundations.

See alsoDeoband ; Jam˓iyat-e ˓Ulama-e Hind ; Jam˓iyat-e ˓Ulama-e Islam ; South Asia, Islam in .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ahmad, Mujeeb. Jam'iyyat 'Ulama-i-Pakistan 1948–1979, Islamabad: National Institute of Historical and Cultural Research, 1993.

Malik, Jamal. "The Luminous Nurani: Charisma and Political Mobilisation among the Barelwis in Pakistan." Pnina Werbner (ed.): Person, Myth and Society in South Asian Islam, Adelaide 1990.

Jamal Malik