| Country: | Pakistan |
| Details of Formation: | The Jamaat-i-Islami was establishes in Lahore on August 26, 1941. It is Pakistan’s oldest religious party. It became pro-government in 1977, when it agitated against the Bhutto regime, which prepared the stage for the coup by Ziaul Haq, who then became President. |
| Details of Termination: | In 1988, the Jamaat-i-Islami joined other political parties and rejected the policy of President Ziaul Haq, distancing itself from Zia’s regime. In 1990, it became part of Pakistan’s right-wing coalition government. In May 1992, the Jamaat-i-Islami left the government after disagreements during the negotiations to produce a new government in Afghanistan. |
| Purpose: | The main purpose of the group was to support General Zia to stay in power. This implied that they were actively intimidating political opposition. |
| Organisation: | The Jamaat-i-Islmai had close links to President Ziaul Haq. During his Presidency, the PGM was the only religious party supporting his regime, and was thus able to impose policy demands on the government, which the government complied with in order to maintain the support of the well-armed Jamaat-i-Islami group. The Jamaat-i-Islami also received official patronage. In exchange, the Jamaat-i-Islami provided unconditional support to Ziaul Haq’s martial law rule. |
| Weapons and Training: | During the 1980s, the Jamaat-i-Islami was able to get hold of arms shipments made by the US for Afghanistan. They prevented large parts of the shipments from reaching Afghanistan, and stockpiled or sold the weapons themselves. They also acquired the weapons from their Afghan Jamaat-i-Islami counterparts. The weapons the US sent included Soviet-made AK-47 rifles, mortars, surface-to-air missiles, bazookas and rocket-propelled grenades. |
| Size: | In 1982, the Jamaat-i-Islami had over 1 million members. It is not clear how many were actually part of the armed wing. In 1987, 10,000 Jamaat-i-Islami members participated in a demonstration organised by the President. |
| Reason for Membership: | -- |
| Treatment of Civilians: | Jamaat-i-Islami participated, alongside other fundamentalist Islamic parties, in deadly campaigns against religious minorities, including the Ahmedis, an Islamic minority sect. More than a dozen Ahmedis were killed in a move instigated by Jamaat-e-Islami, though the killers were not caught. In a news source a journalist voiced his fear of being beaten up if he criticized the Jamaat-i-Islami. |
| Other Information: | Jamaat-i-Islami is also spelled Jamaat-e-Islami, and sometimes abbreviated JI. It has an extreme violent student wing, known as Islmaic Jamiat Tulaba. Jamaat-i-Islami received financial support from radical groups in Saudi Arabia and Iran. The group was a PGM during 1977-07-05 – 1988-06-01 (accuracy month) and again from 1990-11-06 (accuracy day) – 1992-05-01 (accuracy month). |
| References: | Information was taken from news sources listed in the PGMD |