A Riddle of Balancing Responsibilities Under the Constitution of Pakistan and International Human Rights Law

Abstract

Pakistan refers Islam to be its state’s religion. It is at the same time party to various human rights treaties adopted by the United Nations (UN) at different times. The stark and inherent incoherence between the doctrine of Islam as enunciated in its constitution and the principles of the UN sponsored International Human Rights Law have created a paradoxical situation where it ended up reserving parts of the conventions thereby blocking their implementation and enforcement as required by these instruments into their domestic jurisdictions. This doctrinal legal work is an effort to understand and highlight the Islamic constitutional framework of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and its response towards adopting and adhering to the principles enunciated in the UN Human Rights treaties given the discourse that the ideological makeup between two systems is pole apart from one another in its substance thereby rendering the full implementation of these treaties in their letter and spirit impossible.