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General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

SUBMITTED BY:

AAKASH KUMAR BUDHRANI

SUBMITTED TO:

Dr. SAHIB KHAN CHANNA

STUDENT I.D:

11723

SUBJECT:

PAKISTAN STUDIES

DATE :

12-DEC-2011



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Contents

Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq .......................................................................... 4

Army career ...................................................................................................................................... 6

Planning of Coup ................................................................................................................................ 7

Civil disorders against Bhutto ......................... ................................ ...................... ............................ 7

1977 Parliamentary elections ........................ ................................ ....................... ............................ 8

Staged a Coup d'état ........................................................................................................................ 8

Postponement of elections and call for accountability ............................... ....................... ............... 9

Reign as Chief Martial Law Administrator....................................................................................... 10

The Doctrine of Necessity .............................................................................................................. 10

Assumption of the post of President of Pakistan ............................................................................ 10

The trial of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto ........................................................................................................ 11

Appointment of Martial Law Governors .......................................................................................... 11

Reign as President of Pakistan ......................................................................................................... 12

Referendum of 1984 ...................................................................................................................... 12

The Eighth Amendment and elections of 1985 ............................................................................... 13

Involvement in the Soviet-Afghan War............................................................................................ 13

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan ........................... ................................ ...................... ................ 13

Economic reform.............................................................................................................................. 14

Consolidation of atomic bomb programme ....................................... ........................ ..................... 14

Nuclear diplomacy ......................................................................................................................... 15

Nuclear proliferation ............................. ............................... ...................... ................................ .... 16

Expansion ...................................................................................................................................... 16

International standing enhancement and resumption of aid ..................................... ..................... 17

Fighting the war by proxy ............................................................................................................... 17

The war legacy ............................................................................................................................... 17

'Islamisation' of Pakistan ................................................................................................................. 18

Islamic Ordinances ......................................................................................................................... 19



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Sharia laws ..................................................................................................................................... 19

Penal Code ..................................................................................................................................... 20

Pseudoscience and Metaphysics .................................................................................................... 20

Laws against Ahmadiyya community of 1984 ................................................................................. 20

Lal Masjid of Islamabad ........................... ............................ ....................... ................................ .... 22

Dismissal of the Junejo government and call for new elections ...................................................... 22

Political Purge .................................................................................................................................. 23

Death ................................................................................................................................................ 24

Funeral and burial ............................................................................................................................ 25

Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................ 26

References ...................................................................................................................................... 28



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Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (August 12, 1924 ± August 17, 1988), was the 4th Chief MartialLaw Administrator and the sixth President of Pakistan from July 1977 to his death in August

1988. Distinguished by his role in the Black September in Jordan military operation in 1970, hewas appointed Chief of Army Staff in 1976 by Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto after Bhuttoforcefully retired seven senior lieutenant-generals who where tainted with their role in the East-Pakistan war in order to bring and promote Zia to four star rank. After widespread civil disorder ,he planned and overthrew ruling Prime Minister Bhutto in a bloodless coup d'état on July 5,1977, code name Fair Play, and became the state's third military ruler to impose martial law.Zia's idea of religious conservatism in Pakistan became the primary line of his militarygovernment. Throughout the 1980s, Zia managed to consolidate more and more power in hishands, gradually putting down all opposition groups in Pakistan.

He initially ruled as Chief Martial Law Administrator (CMLA), but later installed himself as the

President of Pakistan in September 1978. As both President and CMLA, Zia forcefully crushedthe secular-communist and socialist democratic struggle led by the eldest daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto. Zia abandoned the previous economical policies of Bhutto, andreplaced them with capitalism and privatization of the major industries of Pakistan that had beennationalized by Bhutto in 1970s. The Pakistan economy became one the fastest growingeconomies in South Asia. However, during this period of economic and social change, Ziacurbed and violently dealt with the political rivals in 1980s. His reign is often regarded as a period of mass military repression in which hundreds of thousands of political rivals, minorities,and journalists were executed or tortured, including Pakistan Army's senior general officers convicted in coup-d'état plots against his regime.

Zia's major domestic initiatives included the consolidation of the nuclear development, whichwas initiated by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto; the restarting of the space program as spin-off of thenuclear project, denationalization and deregulation and the state's Islamization. His tenure sawthe disbanding of the Baloch insurgency. His endorsement of the Pakistan Muslim League (thefounding party of Pakistan) initiated its mainstream revival. However, he is most rememberedfor his foreign policy; the subsidizing of the Mujahideen movement during the 1979 Sovietinvasion of Afghanistan which led to the Soviet-Russian withdrawal from Afghanistan SocialistRepublic. Zia entered into an undeclared secret war with Soviet Afghanistan and its ally SovietUnion. Zia authorized secret funding and expansion of intelligence operations in Pakistan andabroad, initially focusing on anti-communist operations. He was described by some as a"fundamentalist Sunni dictator".

Zia died along with several of his top generals and admirals and the then United StatesAmbassador to Pakistan Arnold Lewis Raphel in a suspicious air crash near Bahawalpur (Punjab) on 17 August 198



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Personality & Achievements

Fortified by deep religious conviction, animated by the spirit of Islam and sustained by anideological base, General Muhammad Zia ul Haq, was an enlightened and progressive soldier-statesman, who came into the limelight as one of the spokesman of the Muslim world. Heenlivened OIC (Organization of Islamic Conference) and caused Egypt¶s come back. Headdressed UN General Assembly on behalf of Muslim World ± the climax coming by recitationof holly Qura¶n ± an honorific nobility ever achieved.

When out of uniform, he dropped the mask of office to engage in an animating dialogue. Tomake a point he would look at you with penetrating eyes. You could enter into a contentiousdebate with him at the Chief of Staff¶s house, criticize him for acts of omission and commission,and he would react with his characteristic smile. But when he took his turn he would marshalweighty arguments leaving you disarmed. At the end the final decision was always his own. He practiced, promoted and patronized national dress and national language.

All those who came in close touch with him found him a warmhearted man who made thingssimpler and easier. In his personality, multi dimensional, he combined courtesy, simplicity andgenerosity of a muslim visionary ruler ± always concerned and conscious of accountability onthe day of judgment.

The event which dominated the innumerable achievements of General Zia was the Sovietinvasion of Afghanistan; his name has become irretrievably linked with Afghanistan. He will livein history as its saviour and liberator. The liberation of Afghanistan is indeed the greatest eventof our time and it augurs well for an Islamic future of extraordinary vitality for this region.

When the whole world was unanimous in the view that even to think of opposing an oppressive

and unscrupulous superpower like USSR was tantamount to inviting destruction. What Zia ulHaq had to fall back on was his firm faith in Allah. He had made his decision after considerabledeliberation and remained steadfast in his promise of help to the Mujabideen. It was the result of Zia¶s firmness of faith in Allah that ultimately Russia publicly admitted defeat and had towithdraw its forces. Allah granted General Zia ul Haq an honour greater than which can ever beimagined. The honour is that on the Day of Judgment, dressed in the uniform of the Commander in Chief, accompanied by 1.5 million other martyrs of Afghanistan and flanked by his other generals General Zia ulhaq will present himself before his Allah. Zia ul Haq Shaheed, with thehelp of Afghan tribal militia groups, defeated and humiliated the world¶s greatest superpower.History will record the fact that in Islamic history after the first epoch and after the great MuslimGeneral Salahuddin Ayyubi only general Zia ul Haq shaheed, helped by Allah, has performed

such a great feat.General Zia ul Haq never claimed he had no human weaknesses. He always maintained that hewas a faltering and erring human being. He acknowledged that he had promised again and againto introduce Islamic Shari¶ah laws but, despite his best efforts, had failed to do so.

Despite his own admission of his failure to impose Islamic laws in Pakistan General Zia ul Haq,when the nation unitedly supported him, was within a span of eight months able to introduceIslamic laws governing various aspects of society.



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After Muhammad Ali Jinnah, another shining star appeared three decades later in the person of Muhammad Zia ul Haq. Few rulers in modern times have achieved such universal respect andfew have been so deeply committed to the ideals of Islam. He was simple and austere in his personal habits, embodying the Muslim virtues of humility, generosity, courtesy and piety. His passion in life was service to Islam and the Muslim world, and nothing could persuade him to

deviate from his path. By championing this cause he created many enemies, and on 17 Aug 1988he lost his life in a plane crash contrived by his foes. Little did the enemies of Islam realize thatassassination would be counter-productive; it would strengthen rather than weaken his mission.General Zia ul Haq has become Shaheed or martyr serving as a beacon of light for the MuslimUmmah in its efforts to re-establish Islamic identity; his mission shall be carried forward fromgeneration to generation.

Early life

Zia was born in Jalandhar , British India, in 1924 as the second child of Muhammad Akbar, whoworked in the Army GHQ in Delhi and Simla pre-partition.

He completed his initial education in Simla and then attended St. Stephen's College, Delhi for hisgraduate degree. After graduation from St. Xavier College, Zia joined the British Indian Army in1943.

He married Shafiq Jahan in 1950±51. Shafiq Zia died on January 5, 1996. Zia is survived by hissons, Muhammad Ijaz-ul-Haq, (born 1953), who went into politics and became a cabinet minister in the government of Nawaz Sharif , and Anwar-ul-Haq (born 1950) and his daughters, Zian (alsoZain) (born 1972), a special needs child, and Rubina Salim, who is married to a Pakistani banker

and has been living in the United States since 1980, and daughter Quratulain Zia who currentlylives in London, and is married to Pakistani doctor, Adnan Majid.

Army career

Zia was commissioned in the British Indian Army in a cavalry regiment on May 12, 1943 andserved against Nazi Germany and its allies in World War II. After Pakistan gained itsindependence, Zia joined the newly formed Pakistan Army as a Major. His regiment was nowthe Guides Cavalry Frontier Force Regiment. He was trained in the United States in 1962±1964at the US Army Command and General Staff College Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. After that, he

returned to take over as Directing Staff (DS) at Command and Staff College, Quetta. During theIndo-Pakistani War of 1965, Zia was a tank commander.

Zia was stationed in Jordan from 1967 to 1970 as a Brigadier , helping in the training of Jordanian soldiers, as well as leading the training mission into battle during the Black September operations as commander of Jordanian 2nd Division, a strategy that proved crucial to KingHussein's remaining in power. By 1973, then Major General Zia was commanding the 1stArmoured Division at Multan.



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He was then promoted as Lieutenant General and was appointed commander of the II StrikeCorps at Multan in 1975. It was during this time that Zia invited Prime Minister Zulfikar AliBhutto as the Colonel-in-Chief of the Armoured Corps at Multan, using his tailor to stitch theBlue Patrols of his size. The next day, Bhutto was requested to climb a tank and engage a target,where the target was quite obviously hit. After the function, Zia met Bhutto, placed his hand on

the Qur'an and said, "You are the saviour of Pakistan and we owe it to you to be totally loyal toyou".

On March 1, 1976, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto approved then-3 star general Lieutenant-General Zia as Chief of Army Staff and to be elevated to 4 star rank. This promotion was aheadof a number of more senior officers. At the time of his nominating the successor to the outgoingChief of Army Staff General Tikka Khan, the Lieutenant Generals in order of seniority were,Muhammad Shariff , Muhammed Akbar Khan, Aftab Ahmed Khan, Azmat Baksh Awan,

Agha Ibrahim Akram, Abdul Majeed Malik, Ghulam Jilani Khan, and Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq.But, Bhutto chose the most junior, superseding seven more senior lieutenant-generals. However,

the senior most at that time, Lieutenant-General Mohammad Shariff, though promoted toGeneral, was made the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, a constitutional postakin to President Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry. Zia never called Bhutto as "Mr. Prime Minister", butrelied on the term Sir while referring to Bhutto.

Planning of Coup

Prime Minister Bhutto began facing considerable criticism and increasing unpopularity as histerm progressed. Initially targeting leader of the opposition Khan Abdul Wali Khan and hisopposition National Awami Party (NAP). Despite the ideological similarity of the two parties,the clash of egos both inside and outside the National Assembly became increasingly fierce,starting with the Federal governments decision to oust the NAP provincial government inBalochistan for alleged secessionist activities and culminating in the banning of the party andarrest of much of its leadership after the death of a close lieutenant of Bhutto's, Hayat Sherpao, ina bomb blast in the frontier town of Peshawar .

Civil disorders against Bhutto

Dissidence also increased within the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), and the murder of a leadingdissident Ahmed Raza Kasuri's father led to public outrage and intra-party hostility as Bhuttowas accused of masterminding the crime. Powerful PPP leaders such as Ghulam Mustafa Khar

openly condemned Bhutto and called for protests against his regime. The political crisis in the NWFP (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) and Balochistan intensified as civil liberties remainedsuspended, and an estimated 100,000 troops deployed there were accused of abusing humanrights and killing large numbers of civilians.



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1977 Parliamentary elections

On January 8, 1977 a large number of opposition political parties grouped to form the Pakistan National Alliance (PNA). Bhutto called fresh elections, and PNA participated fully in those

elections. They managed to contest the elections jointly even though there were grave splits onopinions and views within the party. The PNA faced defeat but did not accept the results,alleging that the election was rigged. They proceeded to boycott the provincial elections. Despitethis, there was a high voter turnout in the national elections; however, as provincial electionswere held amidst low voter turnout and an opposition boycott, the PNA declared the newly-elected Bhutto government as illegitimate.

Staged a Coup d'état

All the opposition leaders called for the overthrow of Bhutto's regime.Political and civil disorder intensified, which led to more unrest. Bhutto imposed martial law in major cities includingKarachi, Lahore and Hyderabad. However, a compromise agreement between Bhutto andopposition was ultimately reported.This compromise theory was however probably a later dayaddition as a major PPP armed rally was in the offing.Zia planned a the Coup d'état carefully ashe knew Bhutto had integral intelligence in the Pakistan Armed Forces, and many officers,including Chief of Air Staff General Zulfiqar Ali Khan and Major-General Tajammul HussainMalik , GOC of 23rd Mountain Division, Major-General Naseerullah Babar , DG of Directorate-General for the Military Intelligence (DGMO) and Vice-Admiral Syed Mohammad Ahsan, were

loyal to Bhutto.

To remove this intelligence, Zia secretly contracted with the active duty British SAS armyofficers to maintain a staff course for the Army personnel while Chief of Naval Staff AdmiralMohammad Shariff quietly removed naval personnel loyal to Bhutto and his government fromthe Navy's active duty. Zia ordered Bhutto's loyal officers to attend a staff and command courseand none of the officers were allowed to leave the course until the midnight.Meanwhile, Zia withhis close officers, including Admiral Mohammad Shariff, then-Chaiman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, arranged the coup in the evening. On July 5, 1977, before the announcement of any agreement, Bhutto and members of his cabinet were arrested by troops of Military Policeunder the order of Zia by the evening.



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CIA Role

Many political analysts and scientists widely suspected that the riots and coup against Bhuttowas orchestrated with help of Central Intelligence Agency and the United States Government

because United States was afraid of Bhutto's socialist policies which were seen as sympathetic tothe Soviet Union and had built a bridge that allowed Soviet Union to involved in Pakistan.Aformer U.S. attorney general and Human rights activist, Ramsey Clark, quoted that:

"I [Ramsey Clark] do not believe in conspiracy theories in general, but the similarities in thestaging of riots in Chile (where the CIA allegedly helped overthrow President SalvadoreAllande) and in Pakistan are just too close, Bhutto was removed from power in Pakistan by forceon July 5, after the usual party on the 4th at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, with U.S. approval,if not more, by General Zia-ul-Haq.Bhutto was falsely accused and brutalized for months during proceedings that corrupted the Judiciary of Pakistan before being murdered, then hanged. AsAmericans, we must ask ourselves this: Is it possible that a rational military leader under thecircumstances in Pakistan could have overthrown a constitutional government, without at leastthe tacit approval of the United States?".

Post ponement of elections and call for accountability

After assuming power as Chief Martial Law Administrator, Zia promised to hold National andProvincial Assembly elections in the next 90 daysand to hand over power to the representativesof the nationHe also stated that the Constitution of Pakistan had not been abrogated, but

temporarily suspended.

However, in October 1977, he announced the postponement of theelectoral plan and decided to start an accountability process for the politicians. Zia said that hechanged his decision due to the strong public demand for the scrutiny of political leaders whohad engaged in malpractice in the past but there is no evidence to this claim. Thus the"retribution first, elections later" PNA policy was adopted. This severely tainted his credibility asmany saw the broken promise as malicious.It is widely believed that once out of power the sizeof PPP rallies swell and a better performance in elections was possible. This led to request for postponement of elections by the right wing which displaced Bhutto in the first place.

A Disqualification Tribunal was formed, and several individuals who had been Members of Parliament were charged with malpractice and disqualified from participating in politics at any

level for the next seven years. A white paper document was issued, incriminating the deposedBhutto government on several counts.

It is reported by senior officers that when Gen. Zia met federal secretaries for the first time asleader of the country after martial law, he said that "He does not possess the Charisma of Bhutto, personality of Gen. Ayub or the legitimacy of Liaquat Ali Khan" thereby implying how can he be marketed.



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Reign as Chief Martial Law Administrator

The Doctrine of Necessity

Nusrat Bhutto, the wife of the deposed Prime Minister, filed a suit against Zia's military regime,challenging the validity of the July 1977 military coup. The Supreme Court of Pakistan ruled, inwhat would later be known as the Doctrine of Necessity (not to be confused with the 1954Doctrine of necessity) that, given the dangerously unstable political situation of the time, Zia'soverthrowing of the Bhutto government was legal on the grounds of necessity. The judgementtightened the general's hold on the government. When Bhutto appeared personally to argue hisappeal in the supreme court, he almost affirmed his concurrence with the judges present for notletting off a judgement without imposing some conditions on ruling military government.

Assumption of t he post of President of Pakistan

Despite the dismissal of most of the Bhutto government, President Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry was persuaded to continue in office as a figurehead. After completing his term, and despite Zia'sinsistence to accept an extension as President, Chaudhry resigned, and Zia took the office of President of Pakistan on September 16, 1978. Thus his position was cemented as the undisputedruler of the country. Over the next six years, Zia issued several decrees which amended theconstitution and greatly expanded his power. Most significantly, the Revival of Constitution of 1973 Order granted Zia the power to dissolve the National Assembly virtually at will.

Soon the martial law was imposed, Zia called for a meeting of senior statesmen and officers of Pakistan Armed Forces. On his first day of meeting which was called at an early morning,

statesmen and officers were shocked when looking at him and described Zia as lacked of intelligence, and had possessed no " personality charisma" as compared to Bhutto and had "nointellectual property" that would gravitate people towards him like Bhutto, who would attract people's attention by his intellectual, physical appearance, and Bhutto's Westernized dressing.Unlike Bhutto who would appeared in decent Westernized clothing and always had joy in hisface while meeting the journalists, state officials and members of society; General Zia wouldappeared in a well ironed military uniform which he wore on a regular basis, military badges thatwas conferred to him during his long service, and a strict face posture while giving interviews.General Zia rarely smiled and, often seeing saluting at the people while attending the public or political functions. Comparing Bhutto to Zia, Bhutto always chaired meetings with good mood,no matter how serious the situation was, and often seen cared about family matters of others,

while serious decision would also be made. With Zia, meetings were often short but intense anddecisions would he made in matter of minutes, although Zia was a good listener.Nonetheless,Zia's image was perfected as "tyrant, cold person" and was best suited as an "ideal militarydictator", often perpetrated in Western moviesRoedad Khan's book " Pakistan- A Dream Went Sour ", Roedad Khan, who served as Secretary-General for the Internal Security summed up that:



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Zia).. wanted to become an Amir, a ridicule concept which died centuries ago. 'If he (Zia) had his way,

(Zia) would have taken [Pakistan] back to the Middle Ages.... [Zia] had no idea of law or [constitution] or

the requirements of a [modern] governments'. Roedad Khan Secretary of Internal Security

The trial of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

In the words of Aftab Kazie and Roedad Khan, Zia hated Bhutto and had used inappropriatelanguage and insults to describe Bhutto and his colleagues. On April 4, 1979, the former electedPrime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged, after the Supreme Court upheld the deathsentence as passed by the Lahore High Court. The Supreme Court ruled four to three in favor of execution. The High Court had given him the death sentence on charges of the murder of thefather of Ahmed Raza Kasuri, a dissident PPP politician. Despite many clemency appeals fromforeign leaders requesting Zia to commute Bhutto's death sentence, Zia dismissed the appealsand upheld the death sentence. The hanging of an elected prime minister by a military man wascondemned by the international community and by lawyers and jurists across Pakistan.

Bhutto's last personal appearance and utterances in the supreme court were not merely a longdefence of his conduct he also made some matters clear. He mentioned the words of "heir" for his son "Mir Murtaza Bhutto". He made some remark which indicated that he has views similar to a Sunni, though he was Shia albeit a non-practicing one. He also effectively cast doubt on thereliability of star witnesses against him i.e. Masood Mahmood who was a UK-trained lawyer andnot merely a police officer and FSF chief. He mentioned repeatedly Lahori Ahmedi connectionof Masood Mahmood in his testimony. He repeatedly brought the subject of his maltreatment inthe death cell. Bhutto made it abundantly clear, even though indirectly that he wanted either freedom or death, not some thing in between, and appreciated Khar and his lawyer YahyaBakhtiar.

Bhutto's another lawyer Abdul Hafiz Pirzada filed a petition for the release of Bhutto's colleagueMubashir Hassan and Bhutto itself.The Supreme Court concluded that Bhutto's execution can berevered by the President, and Hassan's case is being deal by Military Justice Court led by Zia;therefore, the civilian courts have no jurisdiction over that hearing. Pirzada submitted the requestto Chief of Army Staff Directorate, but Zia claimed that the request application had been gonemissing. Therefore, Zia upheld the sentence and Bhutto was executed. Shattered and disturbedPirzada departed to United Kingdom and did not returned to Pakistan until the democracy wasreturned in 1988. It was not until 2000, when the Pakistan media published its report that theapplication was found in the record section (Directorate-General for the Military History) at theGenerals Combatant Headquarter (GHQ). The application was made public domain whenGeneral Pervez Musharraf declassified much of the 1970s secret documentations.

Appointment of Martial Law Governors

The Zia regime largely made use of installing high-profile military generals to carte blanche provincial administration under martial law. Zia's Guides Cavalry comrade and foul-mouthLieutenant-General Fazhle Haque was appointed Martial Law Administrator of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province. Lieutenant-General Fazle Haque was considered a strong vocal General



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and a strong man. General Haque was the commander of the XI Corps, and commanding-generalofficer of the Army elements responsible for fighting a secret war against Soviet Union.

The second appointment was of Lieutenant-General S.M. Abbasi who was appointed MartialLaw Administrator of Sindh Province; his tenure too saw civil disorder amid student riots. By

contrast, third martial law administrator appointment of Lieutenant-General Ghulam Jilani Khanto the Punjab Province made much headway in beautifying Lahore extending infrastructure, andmuting political opposition. The ascent of Navaz Sharif to Chief Minister of Punjab was largelydue to General Jilani's sponsorship. Perhaps most crucially, final and fourth martial lawadministrator appointment was then-Lieutenant-General Rahimuddin Khan. Lieutenant-GeneralRahimuddin Khan was appointed to the post of Martial Law Administrator of BalochistanProvince saw the disbanding of the Baloch insurgency, the containment of Afghan Mujahideen,as well as the construction of nuclear test sites in the Chagai District.

Zia's tenure saw the influx of heroin, sophisticated weaponry, and countless refugees in fromneighbouring Afghanistan Law and order deterioration was worse after he appointed Mr. Junejo

as Prime minister in 1985.

Reign as President of Pakistan

In the absence of a parliament, Zia decided to set up an alternative system, M ajlis-e-Shoora, in1980. Most of the members of the Shoora were intellectuals, scholars, ulema, journalists,economists, and professionals in different fields. The Shoora was to act as a board of advisors tothe President. All 284 members of the Shoora were to be nominated by the President, also knownas a technocracy or government of technocrats.

Amongst technocrats included in Zia's cabinet was Dr. Asad who increased the oil production of

the country manyfold. Many members of this Shoora later joined other parties after his death.

Referendum of 1984

Zia eventually decided to hold elections in the country. But before handing over the power to the public representatives, he decided to secure his position as the head of state. A referendum washeld on December 19, 1984 and the option was to elect or reject the General as the futurePresident. The question asked in the referendum was whether the people of Pakistan wanted

Islamic Sharia law enforced in the country.According to the official result, more than 95% of thevotes were cast in favour of Zia, thus he was elected as President for the next five years.However, they were marred by allegations of widespread irregularities and technical violationsof the laws and ethics of democratic elections.Also, despite pressure from the government tovote, only 10% of those eligible to vote did so Zia had the overwhelming majority of the votescast, but in reality the referendum was an embarrassing failure.



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The Eight h Amendment and elections of 1985

After being elected President, Zia decided to hold elections in the country in February 1985 on anon-party basis. Most of the opposing political parties decided to boycott the elections butelection results showed that many victors belonged to one party or the other. To make thingseasier for himself, the General nominated the Prime Minister from amongst the Members of theAssembly. To many, his nomination of Muhammad Khan Junejo as the Prime Minister was because he wanted a simple person at the post who would act as a puppet in his hands.Beforehanding over the power to the new Government and lifting martial law, Zia got the newlegislature to retroactively accept all of Zia's actions of the past eight years, including his coup of 1977. He also managed to get several amendments passed, most notably the Eighth Amendment,which granted "reserve powers" to the president to dissolve the National Assembly. However,this amendment considerably reduced the power he'd previously granted himself to dissolve thelegislature, at least on paper. The text of the amendment permitted Zia to dissolve the Assemblyonly if the Cabinet had been toppled by a vote of no confidence and it was obvious that no onecould form a government or the government could not function in a constitutional manner .

Involvement in t he Soviet-Afghan War

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

On December 25, 1979, the Soviet Union (USSR) intervened Soviet Afghanistan. Following this invasion,

Zia chaired a meeting and was asked by several cabinet members to refrain from interfering in the war,

owing to the vastly superior military power of the USSR. Zia, however, was ideologically opposed to the

idea of communism taking over a neighboring country, supported by the fear of Soviet advancement

into Pakistan, particularly Balochistan, in search of warm waters, and made no secret about his

intentions of monetarily and militarily aiding the Afghan resistance (the Mujahideen) with major

assistance from the United States.

During this meeting, Director-General of the ISI then-Lieutenant-General Akhtar Abdur Rahman

advocated for the idea of covert operation in Afghanistan by arming the Islamic extremist.During this

meeting, General Rahman was heard saying: "Kabul must burn! Kabul must burn!", and mastered the

idea of proxy war in Afghanistan. After this meeting, Zia authorized this operation under General

Rahman, and it was later merged with Operation Cyclone, a programme funded by the United States

and the CIA.

In November 1982, General Zia traveled to the Soviet Union to attend the funeral of LeonidBrezhnev, then-General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Soviet President Andrei Gromyko and the new Secretary-General Yuri Andropov met with Zia where a brief



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meeting took place at the Kremlin. The Soviet Union and the new Secretary General YuriAndropov were angry at Pakistan's covert involvement in the support of Afghan resistanceagainst the Soviet Union and her satellite state, Soviet Afghanistan, and expressed hisindignation to the General. Then General Zia took his hand and told him that, "Mr. SecretaryGeneral... Believe me, Pakistan wants nothing but good and healthy relations with the Soviet

Union".According to Andrei Gromyko, Zia's sincerity had caught off guards and in the meeting,everyone believed him but sadly found out that his words were not followed by his actions.

While there, Indira Gandhi compared the personality of Zia to Bhutto's while she summed upthat Bhutto was intelligent, caring, and global experience that would reflect in his face. But withZia, the tyranny could easily been seen on his face.

Economic reform

Under Zia, the previous ruler Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's nationalisation policies were slowly reversed

and gradual privatisation took place Zia greatly favoured egalitarianism and industrialisation.

Between 1977 and 1986, the country experienced an average annual growth in the GNP of 6.8%,one of the highest in the world at that time.

Consolidation of atomic bomb programme

One of the earliest initiative took by General Zia in 1977, was to militarized the integratedatomic energy programme which was founded by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1972.During the firststages, the programme was under the control of Bhutto and the Directorate for Science, under Science Advisor Dr. Mubashir Hassan, was heading the civilian committee that supervised theconstruction of the facilities and laboratories. This atomic bomb project had no boundaries with

Munir Khan and Abdul Qadeer Khan leading their efforts separately whom they had report toBhutto and his science adviser dr. Mubashir Hassan who had little interest in this atomic bomb project. Major-GeneralZahid Ali Akbar , an engineering officer, had little role in the atomic project; General Zia responded by taking over the programme under the military control anddisbanded the civilian directorate when he ordered the arrest of dr. Mubashir Hassan. This wholegiant nuclear energy project was transferred into the complete administrative hands of Major-General Akbar who was soon made the Lieutenant-General and Engineer-in-Chief of Corps of Engineers to deal with the authorities whose cooperation was required. General Akbar consolidated the entire project by placing the scientific research under the military control,setting boundaries and goals. General Akbar proved to be an extremely capable officer in thematters of science and technology when he aggressively led the development of nuclear weapons

under Munir Ahmad Khan and Abdul Qadeer Khan in matters of five years.

By the time, Zia assumed the control, research facilities fully became functional and the 90% of the work on atom bomb project was completed.Both the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) and the Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) had ingeniously built the extensive researchinfrastructure initiated by Bhutto. General Akbar's office was soon shifted at the ArmyCombatant Generals Headquarter (GHQ) and guided General Zia on key matters of nuclear science and the atomic bomb production, and was the first engineering officer to have



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acknowledge General Zia about the success of this energy project into the fully matured programme. On the recommendation of Akbar, Zia approved the appointment of Munir AhmadKhan as the scientific director of the atomic bomb project, as Zia was convinced by Akbar thatcivilian scientists under Munir Khan's directorship were at their best to counter the international pressure.

This was proved when the PAEC conducted the cold-fission test of a fission device, codename K irana- I on March 11, 1983 at the Weapon-Testing Laboratories-I, under the leadership of weapon-testing laboratory's director dr. Ishfaq Ahmad. Lieutenant-General Zahid Akbar went toGHQ and notified General Zia about the success of the this test. [ ] The PAEC responded byconducting several cold-tests throughout the 1980s, a policy also continued by Benazir Bhutto in1990s.

Nuclear diplomacy

Unlike Bhutto who faced rogue criticism and faced a heated diplomatic war with the UnitedStates throughout the 1970s, General Zia took different diplomatic approaches to counter theinternational pressure. From 1979 to 1983, the country was made a subject of attack byinternational organization for not signing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT); GeneralZia deftly neutralized international pressure by tagging Pakistan's nuclear weapons programmeto the nuclear designs of neighboring Indian nuclear programme. General Zia, with the help of Munir Ahmad Khan and Agha Shahi, Foreign Minister , drew a five-point proposal as a practicalrejoinder to world pressure on Pakistan to sign the NPT; the points including the renouncing of the use of nuclear weapons.

Following the success of O peration O pera ² an Israeli Air Force strike to sabotage the Iraqinuclear programme in 1981 ² amid suspicion grew in Pakistan that Indian Air Force had similar plans for Pakistan. In private meeting with General Anvär Schamiem, then-Chief of Air Staff ,General Zia had notified General Schamiem that Indian Air Force had plans to infiltrate inPakistan's nuclear energy project, citing the solid evidences. Due to weak Air Force, GeneralShamim felt that the air force was unable to divert such attacks, therefore, General Shamimadvised General Zia to use diplomacy through Munir Ahmad Khan to divert the attacks. [45] AtVienna, Munir Ahmad Khan met with Raja Ramanna notified his counter-part that such attack would provoked a nuclear war between two countries. In meantime, General Shamim decided tostart the program to acquire the advanced F-16 Falcons and A-5 Fanton jets for Pakistan Air Force. General Shamim launched the O peration Sentinel - a counter operation that thwarted theIsraeli Air Force attempt to sabotage Pakistan's nuclear energy project ² forced Indian Premier Indira Gandhi to held talks with Pakistan on nuclear issues and directed a high delegation toPakistan where both countries pledged not to assist or attack each others facilities. In 1985,following the induction of F-16 Falcons and A-5 Fantons, General Shamim commissioned theAir Force Strategic Command to protect and battle the weapons of mass destruction.



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Nuclear proliferation

Soon after the coup, the clandestine nuclear energy project was no longer a secret to the outsideworld. Part of his strategy was to promotion of nuclear proliferation in anti-western states (such

as North Korea, Iran, and communist China) to aid in their own nuclear ambition, in order todivert the international attention which was difficult. In 1981, General Zia contracted with Chinawhen he sent the sensitive weapon-grade uranium to China and also built the centrifugelaboratory which increasingly enchanced the Chinese nuclear programme. This act encouragedDr. Abdul Qadeer Khan who allegedly tried to aidin Libyan nuclear program but because the tieswere strained, Khan was warned of serious consequences. This policy was envisaged that thiswould deflect international pressure on these countries and Pakistan would be spared theinternational community's wrath.

After General Zia's death, his successor General Mirza Aslam Beg, as Chief of Army Staff,encouraged Khan and gave him a free hand to work with some like-minded nations like NorthKorea, Iran and Libya who also wanted to pursue their nuclear ambitions for a variety of reasons.In 2004, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan's dismissal from the nuclear weapons programme wasconsidered a face saving exercise by the Pakistan Armed Forces and political establishmentunder the then Chief of Army Staff and President General Pervez Musharraf .Zia's nuclear proliferation policy had deep impact on the world, especially anti-western states, most nominally North Korea and Iran. In 2000s, North Korea soon would followed the same suit after it wastargeted by international community for its on-going nuclear program. In 2000s, North Koreaattempted to aid in Syrian and Iranian nuclear program in 1990s. The North Korean connectionto Syrian nuclear program was exposed in 2007 by Israel in its successful strategic operation,Orchard , which resulted in sabotaging the Syrian nuclear program as well as death of 10 senior North-Korean scientists who were aiding to build the nuclear program.

Expansion

Even though General Zia had removed the Bhutto sentiment in the nuclear energy project,General Zia did not completely disband Bhutto's policy on nuclear weapons. After the retirementof General Akbar, General Zia transferred the control of the nuclear weapons program toBhutto's close aide Munir Ahmad Khan, Chairman of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission.

Soon, General Zia promoted Khan as the technical director of the entire programme as well asreturned to post of Science Adviser by appointing Munir Ahmad Khan as his adviser. With thesupport of handpicked civilian Prime minister Muhammad Juneijo, General Zia sanctioned thelaunch of the 50MW heavy water plutonium production reactor, known as K hushab- I , at

Khushab in 1985. General Zia also took initiatives to launched the space projects as spin-off tonuclear project. Zia appointed nuclear engineer Salim Mehmud as the Administrator of theSpace Research Commission. Zia also launched the work on country's first satellite, Badr-1, amilitary satellite. In 1987, General Zia launched the clandestine aerospace project, IntegratedMissile Research Programme General Anwar Shamim in 1985 and later under Lieutenant-General Talat Masood in 1987.



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International standing enhancement and resumption of aid

Zia's international standing greatly rose after his declaration to fight the Soviet invaders. Pakistan ± United States relations took a much more positive turn. U.S. President Jimmy Carter and hisSecretary of State, Cyrus Vance, cut off U.S. aid to Pakistan on the grounds that Pakistan had notmade sufficient progress on the nuclear issue. Then, on December 25, 1979, the Soviets invadedAfghanistan, and Carter offered Pakistan $325 million in aid over three years. Zia rejected this as"peanuts." Carter also signed the finding in 1980 that allowed less than $50 million a year to goto the Mujahideen. After Ronald Reagan came to office, defeating Carter for the US Presidencyin 1980, all this changed, due to President Reagan's new priorities and the unlikely andremarkably effective effort by Congressman Charles Wilson (D-TX), aided by Joanne Herring,and CIA Afghan Desk Chief Gust Avrakotos to increase the funding for Operation Cyclone. Aidto the Afghan resistance, and to Pakistan, increased substantially, finally reaching $1 billion. TheUnited States, faced with a rival superpower looking as if it were to create another Communist bloc, now engaged Zia to fight a US-aided war by proxy in Afghanistan against the Soviets.

Fighting t he war by proxy

Zia now found himself in a position to demand billions of dollars in aid for the Mujahideen fromthe Western states, famously dismissing a United States proposed $325 million aid package as"peanuts". Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and Special Service Group now became activelyinvolved in the conflict, and in cooperation with the Central Intelligence Agency and the UnitedStates Army Special Forces supported the armed struggle against the Soviets.

In 1981, Ronald Reagan succeeded Jimmy Carter as President of the United States. Reagan wascompletely against the Soviet Union and its Communist satellites, dubbing it "the evil empire".

Reagan now increased financial aid heading for Pakistan. In 1981, the Reagan Administrationsent the first of 40 F-16 jet fighters to the Pakistanis. But the Soviets kept control of the Afghanskies until the Mujahideen received Stinger missiles in 1986. From that moment on, theMujahideen's strategic position steadily improved.

The Soviets declared a policy of national reconciliation. In January they announced that a Sovietwithdrawal was no longer linked to the makeup of the Afghan government remaining behind.Pakistan, with the massive extra-governmental and covert backing from the largest operationever mounted by the CIA and financial support of Saudi Arabia, therefore, played a large part inthe eventual withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan in 1988.

The war legacy

The war left deep scars to the Pakistan's society with the menace of Kalashnikov (AK-47 assaultrifle) culture spreading all over the country. It is estimated that there are currently 20 millionfirearms in Pakistan, which has a population of about 175 million (as of July 2010) i.e., almostevery ninth person has a firearm, most likely an automatic one. The rise of the illicit drug tradeand its spread through Pakistan to the rest of the world increased tremendously during the



18

Soviet-Afghan war. Afghanistan's drug industry began to take off after the Soviet invasion in1979. Desperate for cash with which to buy weapons, various elements in the anti-Communistresistance turned to the drug trade. This was tolerated if not condoned by their Americansponsors such as the C I A.

It was thought by some leading I S I

officials then assisting Mujaheedin led war that convertingraw opium to heroin is a technology which was not known to illiterate Afghans and was taught by C I A or some others with advanced technology as later was easy to smuggle and earn cash for resistance.

Two Afghan Mujahideen groups later morphed into Jihadist outfits in the shape of Taliban andAl-Qaeda in the early 1990s. The Pakistan and United States trained Arab and Afghan fighterslater in 2001 initiated a Jihad against United States in 2001 and against Pakistan in 2004. Thelinks of the spectacular and deadly events of September 11 were deeply rooted in the Soviet-Afghan war. Osama bin Laden invested his inherited money into the Soviet-Afghan war to fightthe 'infidel communist power' and was abetted by C I A, I S I , US and Pakistani military

establishments for over 10 years.F

or its turn in Pakistan, the war in West Pakistan, hampered thePakistan's economy, dismantle the civil society, and as well as resulted 3,000 deaths for Pakistan's Armed Forces. General Zia's morphed Jihadist furthered destabilized the country'sstrong branches, and country faced a wave of suicide bombing from the period 2007 to 2011,resulting in more than 30,000 civilian deaths in Pakistan.

'Islamisation' of Pakistan

On December 2, 1978, on the occasion of the first day of the Hijra to enforce the Islamic systemin Pakistan in a nationwide address, Zia accused politicians of exploiting the name of Islam:" M any a ruler did what they pleased in the name of I slam." After assuming power, thegovernment began a program of public commitment to enforce Nizam-e- M ustafa (IslamicSystem), a significant turn from Pakistan's predominantly Anglo-Saxon law, inherited from theBritish. As a preliminary measure to establish an Islamic society in Pakistan, Zia announced theestablishment of Sharia Benches. To many secular and communist forces, Zia cynicallymanipulated I slam for the survival of his own regime. In 1983, Nusrat Bhutto reasoned GeneralZia's policies as she puts it:

The (scream) and the horrors of 1971 war..... are (still) alive and vivid in the hearts and the minds of

people of [Pakistan]...Therefore, General Zia insanely.... used the "Islam [Card]".... to ensure the survivalof his own regime....

Nusrat Bhutto, former First Lady of Pakistan,



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Islamic Ordinances

The hybridization of Pakistan penal code with Islamic laws was not an easy work. Two verydifferent logics lay underneath both. PPC was kingly law, H addood is a religious and

community-based law. Under the Offenses Against Property (Hudood Ordinance) Ordinance1979, the punishment of imprisonment or fine, or both, as provided in the existing Pakistan PenalCode (PPC) for theft, was substituted by the amputation of the right hand of the offender fromthe joint of the wrist by a surgeon. For robbery, the right hand of the offender from the wrist andhis left foot from the ankle should be amputated by a surgeon. H udood ( , also transliterated H adud , H udud ; plural for H adh, , limit, or restriction) is the word often used in Islamic socialand legal literature for the bounds of acceptable behaviour. Although the punishments wereimposed, the due process, witnesses and prosecution system remained un-Islamic Anglo-Saxon.As in Islamic law Hudud can only be given if four witnesses saw the crime happen, in realityhardly anyone can be punished by Islamic Hud laws as very rarely can the conditions for punishment be met.

Under the Zina Ordinance, the provisions relating to adultery were replaced so that the womenand the man guilty will be flogged, each of them, with one hundred lashes, if unmarried. And if they are married they shall be stoned to death provided the proof required for hadd is met. That isfour Muslim adult male witnesses of good repute to the act of penetration or a voluntaryconfession in a competent court of law. The Zina Ordinance is fraught with legal ambiguities andthe major flaw in this law is the fact that no distinction is made between adultery and rape. Rapeis considered no more heinous a crime than zina. The demarcation line between the two offencesis so thin in practice, that when a woman comes into the court with a case of rape, she risks beingconvicted of zina herself, if she cannot prove the rape. [8] The onus of providing proof in a rapecase rests with the woman herself. If she is unable to prove her allegation, bringing the case tocourt is considered equivalent to a confession of sexual intercourse without lawful marriage.Thus this ordinance has been criticized by human rights and women's rights activists, lawyersand politicians over the years, but so far no attempt at repeal has been successful.

Sharia laws

In legal terms, (Islamic law being usually referred to as Sharia, ) the term is used todescribe laws that define a certain level of crime classification. Crimes classified under H udud were the most severe of crimes, such as murder, theft, and adultery. There were minor differences in views between the four major Sunni madh'habs about sentencing andspecifications for these laws. It is often argued that, since Sharia is God's law and states certain

punishments for each crime, they were immutable. It has been argued by some that the Hudud portion of Sharia is incompatible with humanism or human rights. Although the Hud punishments were imposed, the Islamic law of evidence was not implemented and remainedBritish in origin.

Drinking of wine (i.e. all alcoholic drinks) was not a crime under the PPC. In 1977, however, thedrinking and selling of wine by Muslims was banned in Pakistan and the sentence of imprisonment of six months or a fine of Rs. 5000/-, or both, was provided in that law. This ban



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on drinking was promulgated by Bhutto as he tried to soothen the tide of street Islamization drivecalled Nizam-e- M ustafa in his last days.

Penal Code

Pakistan's college of unreliable witnesses and unscientific manner of investigations and veryyoung secular law judges meant that Haddood too did not work like the secular PPC law beforeit. The Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) were amended,through ordinances in 1980, 1982 and 1986 to declare anything implying disrespect to theIslamic prophet Muhammad, Ahl al- Bayt (family members of Muhammad), Sahabah (companions of Muhammad) and Sha'ar-i- I slam (Islamic symbols), a cognizable offence, punishable with imprisonment or fine, or with both.

Pseudoscience and Metaphysics

Zia attempted to Islamize science in Pakistan and appointed Muslim fundamentalistadministrators to enforce the pseudo-science. At first, the policy was changed by Zia on nuclear development. Zia argued that Pakistan's atomic bomb is a property of Islamic Ummah, a theorythat Bhutto had earlier avoided to keep the Pakistan sentiment strong and alive in scientists whiledeveloping the program. Saudi Arabia was the sole financier of the program, and Zia unofficiallytold Saudis that "Our achievements are your achievements", and later helped building the Saudinuclear programme. This prompted Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan to send the designs of centrifuges toLibya to aide in their nuclear program as part of Zia's vision. Zia changed the entire educationalsystem in the country, under a general drive towards Islamization, started the process of historical revisionism in earnest and exploited this initiative. 'The Pakistan's establishment taughttheir children right from the beginning that this state was built on the basis of religion ± that's

why they don't have tolerance for other religions and want to wipe out all of them.

At the end, Zia's controversial policies slowed down the progress of science in the country andattributed his dearth to militant Islam in Pakistan and the promotion of pseudoscience by Muslimfundamentalists in Pakistani schools and universities.

Laws against Ahmadiyya community of 1984

Another addition to the laws was Ordinance XX of 1984. Under this, the Ahmadiyya were barredfrom calling themselves Muslims, or using Islamic terminology or practising Islamic rituals. Thisresulted in classifying the Ahmadiyya Community of Pakistan into a minority group in law. Ziawas also considered anti-Shia, as Zia¶s regime saw vicious persecution unleashed against theShias, who form 20 percent of Pakistan's population in addition to the persecution levied againstsmaller sects such as the Ahmadiyyas. Further during his reign many Shia Muslim personalities



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and politicians were killed, most prominently the judicial killing of Prime Minister Zulfikar AliBhutto.

Zia did not throw Ahmedis from Army but Ahmedis who were declared minority in Bhutto's erawere unhappy and regained prominent positions after Zia's death as PPP got power again. Zia's

only open clash with Shia Ulema was over Z

akat (charity) distribution related issues. A book called "Profiles of intelligence" documents that event as written and resolved by a Shia militaryofficer of ISI by the regime.

Ordinance XX

Zia promulgated Ordinance XX on April 26, 1984, banning members of the Ahmadiyyacommunity from performing some of their religious ceremonies and prayers. He declared "This

Ordinance may be called the Anti-Islamic Activities of the Ahmadis (Prohibition andPunishment) Ordinance, 1984". Although before Zia's rule, in 1974 Pakistan's NationalAssembly under Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, it was declared that Ahmadis are classified as non-Muslimsfor the definition of the law. But it was not sufficient in stopping the missionary activities of theAhmadiyya community. Article 298-C of the new law states "Any person of the Quadiani groupor the Lahori group (who call themselves 'Ahmadis' or by any other name), who, directly or indirectly, poses himself as Muslim, or calls, or refers to his faith as Islam, or preaches or propagates his faith, or invites others to accept his faith, by words, either spoken or written, or byvisible representations, or in any manner whatsoever outrages the religious feelings of Muslims,shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to threeyears and shall also be liable to fine."

Violence against Ahmadiyya Community

Ironically, Zia had deep respect for Abdus Salam ² a Nobel Laureate in Physics ² and hadconferred with him with Order of I mtiaz in 1979. Zia also allowed Salam to have deliver lecturesin Physics at the Islamabad University, and sanctioned an Award as national decoration after hisname. Salam continued his ties with Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme and its associated personalities, but Zia had refrained Salam from participating in any experiment in thelaboratories of Pakistan. Since the military regime of Zia unleashed a wave of persecution in the1980s, violence against the Ahmadiyya community has never really ceased. Ahmadis continue to be killed and injured, and have their homes and businesses burned down in anti-Ahmadi attacks.The authorities continue to arrest, jail and charge Ahmadis for blasphemy and other offenses because of their religious beliefs. In several instances, the police have been complicit inharassment and the framing of false charges against Ahmadis, or stood by in the face of anti-Ahmadi violence.



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Lal Masjid of Islamabad

The land of Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) was awarded to the occupants by Zia ul Haq. Thecontroversial figureheads Abdul Aziz Ghazi and Abdul Rashid Ghazi of Jamia Hafsa had special

relations with Zia ul Haq and those links were further enhanced by his son Muhammad Ijaz-ul-Haq during his term as a minister of religious affairs. The former head of Lal Masjid, MaulanaAbdullah who was famous for speeches on Jihad (Holy war), is said to be very close to Zia ulHaq.

Dismissal of t he Junejo government and call for newelections

As time passed, the legislature wanted to have more freedom and power and by the beginning of 1988, rumors about the differences between Prime Minister Muhammad Khan Junejo and Ziawere rife.

It is said by some that Zia-Junejo rift was encouraged by late Mahboob-ul-Haq and Junejo'sinsistence on signing Geneva pact without deciding the composition of next government of Afghanistan before Soviet withdrawal. Junejo also gave Benazir a seat next to him in parleys before that. Junejo did not strengthen the Islamization drive and rather weakened it. His era ledto serious disturbances in Karachi and ultimately Karachi went into Shia control of MQM fromclutches of Sunnis Jamaat-e-Islami.

Ojhri Camp blast had irreversibly weakened Zia versus Junejo. Junejo with western supportcould not strike Zia. Zia struck first.

On May 29, 1988, Zia dissolved the Senate and the National Assembly and removed the PrimeMinister under article 58(2)b of the amended Constitution. Apart from many other reasons,Prime Minister Junejo's decision to sign the Geneva Accord against the wishes of Zia, and hisopen declarations of removing any military personnel found responsible for an explosion at amunitions dump at Ojhri Camp, on the outskirts of army headquarters in Rawalpindi, earlier inthe year, proved to be some of the major factors responsible for his removal.

Zia played the Islam card to defend himself and the generals against any accusations of misrule

and corruption. However since the media in Pakistan was brutally gagged in his days, none of hiscorruption could be documented and brought to the limelight by the print media. When accusedof trying to cover-up the Ojhri Camp incident, on May 29, 1988, he invoked an amendment thathe had recently added to the Pakistani Constitution that allowed him to dismiss the PrimeMinister, dissolve the National Assembly and all provincial assemblies ± basically, the entirelegislative portions of the government outside of the Presidency. Zia's loyalists in the militarywere called to form an interim government. Zia justified his actions and diverted attention from



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his corruption by focusing on how the further Islamization of Pakistan had been negligentlydelayed by Junejo and his government.

Zia promised to hold elections in 1988 after the dismissal of Junejo government. He said that hewould hold elections within the next 90 days. The late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's daughter Benazir

Bhutto had returned from exile earlier in 1986, and had announced that she would be contestingthe elections. With Bhutto's popularity somewhat growing, and a decrease in international aidfollowing the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, Zia was in an increasingly difficult politicalsituation.

Political Purge

General Zia as Chief Martial Law Administrator and later President, consolidated near-absolute power in 1970s and 1980s. The Purge that occurred in 1977 to 1979 and re-started in 1983, as areaction to Zia's policies, the populist Movement for the Restoration of Democracy was born andsoon gained popularity in Pakistan's smaller, poorer provinces, especially in Bhutto's home

province, Sindh. General Zia responded by violently dealing with his political opponents and journalists as well as minorities. Indira Gandhi, Indian PM raised concerns over this brutality andviolation of human rights at the hands of Pakistan's military dictatorship (Dawn August 14,1983).

Many senior military officers such as General Zulfikar Ali Khan and Major-General TajammulHussain Malik were convicted for treason, followed a small scale purging of Pakistan Armyofficers sympathetic to Bhutto. Zia curbed the Communist Party by illegally abducting Jam Saqi and Nazeer Abbasi for a secret trial. Both Abbasi and Saqi were tortured and killed whileinterrogating process into the hands of ruthless Brigadier-General Imtiaz Ahmad. The publiclynching and flagellation became common for senior journalists and politicians who suffered at

the hands of General Zia. This absolute act further radicalized the society where intolerance for other people was reached to maximum. Zia's torture and purge forced minorities to fled thecountry such as Major-General Eric Hall, director of Pakistan's space weapons program. Thesenior leadership of People's National Party took the refuge in neighboring Afghanistan andIndia, while many political workers went missing and either killed. One of the notable case wasthe hijacking of Pakistan International Airlines's Boeing 720 in 1981. I S I quickly founded thatthe Al-Zulfikar was behind this plot which resulted in killing of one military pilot. The leaders of this ring Salamullah Tipu was murdered in Kabul Prison; others were abducted by the I S I . Thehead of the KHAD, Mohammad Najibullah was also involved in this plot, but soon paid the priceat the hands of the Taliban in 1996 when he was brutally beaten and publicly hanged in the roadsof Kabul.

Soon this incident, Zia also began to hunt down the Al- Z ulfiqar ² a leftist organization founded by Bhutto's children. The brutal poisoning and death of Shahnawaz Bhutto, Bhutto's youngestson, is widely suspected to done under Zia's orders, though there are no evidences for this claim.Zia's persecution of Bhutto's family, forced Benazir , Sanam and Murtaza Bhutto to hide in Arabworld, notably Syria who provided the government-sanctioned houses to the Bhutto family.



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Deat h

Zia died in a plane crash on August 17, 1988. After witnessing a US M1 Abrams tank demonstration in Bahawalpur, Zia had left the small town in the Punjab province by C-130Hercules aircraft. Shortly after a smooth takeoff , the control tower lost contact with the aircraft.

Witnesses who saw the plane in the air afterward claim it was flying erratically, then nosedivedand exploded on impact. In addition to Zia, 31 others died in the plane crash, including ChairmanJoint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Akhtar Abdur Rahman, close associate of Zia, Brigadier Siddique Salik , the American Ambassador to Pakistan Arnold Lewis Raphel and General HerbertM. Wassom, the head of the U.S. Military aid mission to Pakistan. Ghulam Ishaq Khan, theSenate Chairman announced Zia's death on radio and TV. The manner of his death has given riseto many conspiracy theories.There is speculation that America, India, the Soviet Union (asretaliation for US-Pakistani supported attacks in Afghanistan) or an alliance of them and internalgroups within Zia's military were behind the attack.

A board of inquiry was set up to investigate the crash. It concluded the most probable cause of

the crash was a criminal act of sabotage perpetrated in the aircraft . It also suggested that poisonous gases were released which incapacitated the passengers and crew, which wouldexplain why no M ayday signal was given.

Maj Gen (retd) Mahmud Ali Durrani, claimed later that reports of Israeli and Indian involvementin Ziaul Haq¶s plane crash were only speculations and he rejected the statement that was given by former president Ghulam Ishaq Khan that the presidential plane was blown up in the air.

Durrani stated that Zia's plane was destroyed while landing.



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Funeral and burial

Zia's Tomb Grave stone of Zia's grave

His funeral was held on 20 August 1988 in Islamabad, the country's capital. Also in attendancewas his successor as President of Pakistan, Ghulam Ishaq Khan, who had earlier officiallyannounced Zia's death in a nationwide address. Zia's mortal remains were lowered in a smalltomb outside the Faisal Mosque. With presence of many foreign Leaders and dignitaries, thefuneral was attended by over a million people from all walks of life. Gahibana Namaz-e-Janazawas held at Holy Kaba, Masjid-e-Nabvi and Masjid-e-Aqsa, the three holiest places of worshipin the Muslim faith. Neither USSR nor USA would welcome the possible emergence of a united Islamic block of countries which President Zia seemed to advocate. More worrying still was Pakistan¶sacquisition of nuclear technology. It was even rumored that an important stage in the

development of nuclear technology would have beenreached in November 1988. A few weeks before president Zia¶s death a high ranking official of a major country called on him and asked him to abandon his programme. He declined to do so, saying that as long asPakistan¶s neighbor did not abandon its programme hecould not jeopardize his country¶s security. After muchcajoling, which made no impression on Zia ul Haq, theofficial reportedly warned him of the grave consequencesof refusing to alter his stance. When the official departed,the President told his family that an attempt might be

made on his life; but he reminded them that life and death are in the hands of Allah and that if hewere to attain Shahadat defending Pakistan and Islam, he would consider himself the luckiestman. If this story is true, his words were indeed prophetic. His funeral was held on 19 August1988 in Islamabad, the country's capital. Also in attendance was his successor as President of Pakistan, Ghulam Ishaq Khan, who had earlier officially announced Zia's death in a nationwideaddress. Zia's remains were interred in a small tomb outside the Faisal Mosque.



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Conclusion

Zia came from a lower-middle-class family and was educated at St Stephen's College in Delhi

before joining the British Indian Army in 1944. He was commissioned into the cavalry and saw

service in Burma, Malaya, and Java at the end of the Second World War. After his promotion toBrigadier in 1969, Zia was seconded to Jordan where he helped King Hussein's forces in their

operations against the PLO. On his return home, Zia commanded the first Armoured Division for

three years. He was still relatively unknown however when he became head of the Pakistan army

in the spring of 1976.

Zia launched the coup code-named "Operation Fairplay" against Bhutto on 5 July 1977. It

ushered in Pakistan's longest period of military rule. Even when it was withdrawn on 30

December 1985, Zia retained his post as Chief of Army Staff and continued to wield power

through the office of President. Indeed on 29 May 1988, he dismissed his handpicked Prime

Minister Mohammed Khan Junejo.

Zia's political survival rested on his skill in wrong-footing opponents, and on the favourable

external environment following the December 1979 Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. This

transformed him overnight from an international pariah to America's front-line ally in the fight

against Communism. The Reagan administration provided $3.2 billion of military and economic

assistance, despite concerns over human rights abuses and the nuclear programme.

The martial law era was punctuated by unfulfilled promises of national elections and by

discussion of the relevance of democracy for an Islamic state. Zia maintained that a Western-

style democracy was unsuitable for Pakistan. He eventually agreed to hold "party-less" elections

in February 1985, following a referendum on his Islamic policies which was linked with his re-

election as President. The eleven-party alliance Movement for the Restoration of Democracy,

which had mounted a major campaign in Sind in 1983 against the Zia regime, boycotted both the

polls.

Zia introduced special shariat courts, with Islamic rules of evidence and punishments for certain

crimes. Further measures included the provision of Islamic banking facilities and the government

collection of zakat (alms) and ushr (agricultural tax). Islamization which was stoutly opposed by

women's groups and human rights activists stirred up sectarian tensions between Sunnis andShias.

Karachi experienced mounting ethnic violence from 1986 onwards. Clashes between mohajirs

and Pakhtuns, later extended to the Sindhi community. The growing lawlessness was encourage

by the ready availability of weapons and drugs as a result of the Afghan War. Zia justified his

dismissal of Junejo in terms of the deteriorating security situation. Party-less elections were



27

scheduled for November 1988. Zia died however on 17 August following the unexplained crash

of his C-130 aircraft.

Zia can be viewed as a pious Muslim who halted his country's moral decay and contributed to the

collapse of the Soviet Empire, or condemned as an intolerant and vindictive ruler who cynically

manipulated Islam to remain in power.



References

y Annotated Bibliography for Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues

y "Who Killed Zia?" by Edward Jay Epstein for V anity Fair , September 1989y Official profile at Pakistan Army website y The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan y General Zia-ul-Haq¶s plane crash due to mechanical problem (Times of London) y "Profile: Islamabad's Red Mosque". BBC News. July 27, 2007.y "Pakistan- A Dream Gone Sour". Colonel Athar H ussain Ansari, PAF y "Zia through a daughter¶s eyes". Khalidhasan.net. March 28, 2004. Retrieved November 13,

2011.y "Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq". Nndb.com. Retrieved November 13, 2011.y State and Secularism: Perspectives from Asia§General Z ia-ul- H aq and Patronage of I slamism y "Pakistan's abused Ahmadis". T he Economist (London). January 13, 2010. Retrieved November

13, 2011.y GoPak, Government of Pakistan. "The Eight Amendment". Constitution of Pakistan. Retrieved

November 16, 2011.y "Pakistan Penal Code, Religious and Ahmadi-specific Laws". Thepersecution.org. Retrieved

November 13, 2011.y "Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, PART XII ± Miscellaneous, Chapter 5.

Interpretation, Article 260(3)". Thepersecution.org. May 23, 2001. Retrieved November 13, 2011.y "Editorial: Another clue into General Zia's death". Daily T imes (Lahore). December 4, 2005.

Retrieved November 13, 2011.

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