Review of Economics and Development Studies Vol. 5 No 2, June 2019 315 Volume and Issues Obtainable at Center for Sustainability Research and Consultancy Review of Economics and Development Studies ISSN:2519-9692 ISSN (E): 2519-9706 Volume 5: No. 2, June 2019 Journal homepage: www.publishing.globalcsrc.org/reads The Politics of Religious Extremism in Pakistan: An Analysis 1 Sidra Karamat, 2 Muhammad Muzaffar, 3 Ali Shan Shah 1 PhD Scholar, Department of Political Science and International Relations, GC University, Faisalabad, Pakistan, sidrahkaramat@hotmail.com 2 Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, GC Women University, Sialkot, Pakistan 3 Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science and International Relations, GC University, Faisalabad, Pakistan ARTICLE DETAILS ABSTRACT History Revised format: May 2019 Available Online: June 2019 In this study, the connection between Islamic values and country policies has been carefully connected to the foundations that create political legitimating and the basic nature of a country. Islam performs a crucial part in the social fabric of Pakistan and has been integrated as the guiding concept for the constitutional procedure and governmental systems of the country but at the same time produced implicit stress for their future improvements. Various government authorities have used religious beliefs for their quest for governmental authenticity and power. This has consequently brought about politicization of spiritual explanation in Pakistan demonstrated in the form of sectarian disputes, persecution of spiritual unprivileged or disempowerment of certain spiritual organizations and management. Whereas controversy about interpreting religious identity continues pervading the Pakistani community, it is observed that large parts of the Pakistani inhabitants follow pluralistic types of Islam based on heterogeneous spiritual and devotional methods. Islamic political parties should cooperate on federal or provincial levels with national and local political parties to eliminate the religious extremism in Pakistan. © 2019 The authors, under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial 4.0 Keywords Religious Factions, Military Wings, Extremism, Politics JEL Classification: Corresponding author‟s email address: sidrahkaramat@hotmail.com Recommended citation: Karamat, S., Muzaffar, M. and Shah, A. S. (2019). Politics of Religious Extremism in Pakistan: An Analysis, Review of Economics and Development Studies, 5 (2), 315-322 DOI: 10.26710/reads.v5i2.604 1. Introduction Religious political parties play an important role of Pakistan‟s politics. Their number has spread since earlier years of freedom. Apart from the Jamaat-e-Islami, Islamic parties and groups usually recognize with a particular religious denominational or sectarian group; there can be more than one party with the same religious sectarian identity. In addition to their common competitors, these political parties are packed from each side. On the one side, the national and ethnic/ethnic political parties develop assistance that reduces across religious-sectarian, social and local identity. Many of people choose these political parties rather than Islamic parties. On the other side, Islamic parties are under stress from fundamentalist groups that espouse assault, if required, to engage in their religious and governmental plans (Abbas, 2015). Those with powerful religious orientations usually trim towards these. Some activists shuttle between Islamic parties‟ jihadi and radical groups. All Islamic parties suggest an Islamic socio-political and financial order for