Religious Propagation, Misrepresentation, and Public Order:

A Constitutional Analysis of the Ahmadi Question in Pakistan

Abu Bakar

 

Abstract: This article examines the constitutional limits of the freedom of religion in contexts where disputes over religious identity intersect with public order concerns. Using the controversy surrounding the propagation of Qadianism (also referred to as Ahmadism) as Islam in Pakistan as a case study, the article does not seek to adjudicate questions of religious doctrine or theological correctness. Instead, it focuses on the legal regulation of religious propagation in a religiously plural society. It argues that while freedom of religion protects belief, profession, and voluntary conversion, it does not extend to deceptive forms of propagation that misrepresent the identity of the faith being promoted or undermine an individual’s capacity to make an informed and autonomous choice. While the Supreme Court of Pakistan’s decision in Mubarak Ahmed Sani v The State is pending, the article analyses constitutional provisions, statutory frameworks, and judicial reasoning and contends that regulatory measures addressing such misrepresentation are best understood as public-order interventions rather than as prohibitions on belief. The study advances a nuanced understanding of religious freedom that accommodates overlapping and contested religious identities while permitting narrowly tailored regulation to prevent deception, protect individual autonomy, and maintain social harmony.