Born on 18 December, 1937, in Akora Khattak of Nowshera district in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Haq seemed to follow in his father’s footsteps. His father, Maulana Abdul Haq, was also a prominent religious cleric of the times, a report by The Express Tribune, said.

According to reports, he began his education in around 1946 at the Darul Uloom Haqqania, which had reportedly been founded by his father. In this institution, he studied fiqh, usul al-fiqh, Arabic literature, logic, Arabic grammar (sarf and nahw), tafsir, and Hadith.

Following his father’s death in the 1980s, Haq decided to enter the field of politics. Gaining influence and prestige, he became the head of his faction of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-S), a party founded by Shabbir Ahmad Usmani as an offshoot of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind (JUH) in 1947 in Pakistan, The Express Tribune reported.  Initially working as a teacher of grammar and literature, Haq specialized in the teaching of Hadith and Tafseer and later became the Chancellor of the seminary- Darul Uloom Haqqania, Akora Khattak.

Haq’s seminary, which was dubbed as the “University of Jihad”, had several other extremist leader among its alumni including Haqqani Network founder Jalaluddin Haqqani, Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AIQS) leader Asim Umar and slain Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, AP reported. According to The Express Tribune, Haq was also one of the drafters of Khatm-e-Nabuwwat (the Finality of the Prophethood) law that was put in action in former Prime Minister, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s government.