Commercialization of Religion in Pakistan
Rana Eijaz Ahmad, Abida Eijaz

Abstract
In the twenty first century religion has been commercialized for the vital interests of the few people in the world, may be called as so-called ulema or shrewd political demagogue. They use religion for their purpose not to unite people but to disunite them. This unhealthy attitude of the politico-religious flavor gives rise to commercialization in religions. This commercialization of religions is found in every corner of the world. This paper is focusing on Pakistan only that how politico-religious forces have demolished the binding force of the religion and disunited the society on the grounds of petty issues. First partition of India in 1947 propagated under the concept of two nation theory (TNT) based on religions. Second, the East Pakistan was separated from the Western part of the country on the basis of misinterpretation of religion in 1971. Since then to date, politico-religious factor in Pakistan has been very important in the destiny of the country. In Pakistan religious exploitation is a strong force for disintegration rather a binding force. The politico-religious aspect always kept the so-called ulema and political demagogue in action for employing people for their vital interests. I regret to say that the binding nature of the religion has been demolished by the so-called ulema and political demagogues in Pakistan. This paper is going to explore the commercial nature of religion in Pakistan. The empirical analysis is the essence of the paper. The deductive and inductive approaches have been used to explore the reality.


Full Text: PDF