Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

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**President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq**
Image:Zia-ul-haq.jpeg
Date of Birth:	August 12 1924
Date of Death:	August 17 1988
President of Pakistan
Tenure Order:	6th President
Took Office:	September 16, 1978 – August 17, 1988
Predecessor:	Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry
Successor:	Ghulam Ishaq Khan
Chief of the Army Staff
Tenure Order:	8th Chief of the Army Staff
Took Office:	1976 – 1988
Predecessor:	Gen. Tikka Khan
Successor:	Gen. Mirza Aslam Beg

General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (Urdu: محمد ضیاءالحق) (August 12 1924–August 17 1988) ruled Pakistan from 1977 to 1988. Zia-ul-Haq was the third person in the history of Pakistan to enforce martial law and halt civilian rule in the country. He was also the undisputed ruler of Pakistan for eleven years, the length of which has not been surpassed by any other Pakistani leader.

1 Early life
2 Rise to power
3 Legacy
4 See also
5 External links

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Early life

He was born in Jalandhar (in India) in 1924 as the second child of a school teacher named Mohammad Akbar. He completed his initial education in Simla and then at St. Stephen's College in Delhi. He was commissioned in the British Army in 1943 and served during World War II. At independence, Zia joined the Pakistani Army as a major. He trained in the United States 1962–1964 at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Zia was stationed in Jordan from 1967 to 1970, helping in the training of Jordanian soldiers. On 1 April 1976, Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto appointed Zia-ul-Haq as Chief of Army Staff, ahead of a number of more senior officers.

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Rise to power

On July 5 1977, Zia led a coup against Bhutto's government, and enforced martial law. He promised elections within three months. Zia released Bhutto and said that he could contest new elections in October 1977. However, after it became clear that Bhutto's popularity had survived his government, Zia postponed the elections and began criminal investigations of the senior PPP leadership. Bhutto was sentenced to death. Despite international appeals, Bhutto was hanged on April 4 1979.

In the mid 1980s, Zia decided to fulfill his promise of holding elections. Before handing over power, however, he decided to secure his position. A referendum was held in December 1984, and the option was to elect or reject the General as the future President. The question asked in the referendum was whether the people of Pakistan wanted Islamic (Shari'a) laws enforced in the country. An affirmative answer also meant that Zia would be elected as President for five years. The people of Pakistan allegedly voted for Zia-ul-Haq's Islamization, thereby inadvertently also electing Zia-ul-Haq as President for five years.

Zia then appointed General Rahimuddin Khan, whose previously impressive career made him stand out among his peers, to the post of Governor of Balochistan, and later Governor of Sindh. General Rahimuddin would later go on to concentrate power solely amongst the provincial regime, and often act independently of the central government. This garnered controversy, but it eventually dissipated after the impressive progress Balochistan went through during Rahimuddin's lengthy rule.

In early 1988, rumours about the differences between the Prime Minister and Zia-ul-Haq were rife. The president, who had enjoyed absolute power for eight years, was not ready to share it with anybody else. On May 29 1988 Zia-ul-Haq finally dissolved the National Assembly and removed the Prime Minister under article 58(2) b of the amended Constitution.

After eleven years, Zia-ul-Haq once again promised the nation that he would hold fresh elections within next ninety days. With Benazir Bhutto back in the country and his (Zia's) popularity at an all time low, Zia was trapped in the most difficult situation of his political life. The only option left was to repeat history and to postpone the elections once again. Before he had made a decision, however, Zia-ul-Haq died in a plane crash on August 17 1988, after leaving the town of Bahawalpur in the Punjab province. His death is still a contentious topic in Pakistan. Many people do not believe that it was a simple accident, and hold either the United States or the Soviet Union responsible for Zia-ul-Haq's death. But no evidence has yet come to light to prove either hypothesis. Zia-ul-Haq's remains are housed in a small tomb outside the Faisal Mosque in Islamabad. Recently, John Gunther Dean, a former US ambassador to India, blamed Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, for orchestrating the assassination of Zia-ul-Haq, though he offered no proof for his allegation, made to the World Policy Journal.[1]

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Legacy

General Zia's most enduring legacy was his fighting the Soviet-Afghan War by proxy. This perhaps stopped a direct takeover of Pakistan by the Soviet Union, a superpower at the time.

Another enduring legacy of his is the the political system he left behind. After the partyless elections of February 1985, the 1973 constitution was pulled out of cold storage, and on its back, a series of amendments giving absolute powers to the president were grafted to dismantle any future democratic set up at will. Since then the presidential powers have been used three times to disband elected assemblies. In May 1988 he himself sacked Prime Minister Muhammad Khan Junejo and dissolved the elected assemblies while President Ghulam Ishaq Khan sacked Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and disbanded the national and provincial assemblies, later doing the same again with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was again sacked by President Farooq Leghari using the same powers.

General Zia also militarized the bureaucracy systematically. By his government's orders, 5 % of all new posts in the higher civil service were to be filled by army officers who, consequently, occupied important civilian positions. Successive democratically elected governments have not rescinded this order due to the power wielded by Pakistan ArmyTemplate:Facts.

The General's rule witnessed heightened tensions with neighbouring states. He was instrumental in providing miliatry assistance to Mujahideens fighting in Afghanistan against Soviet Occupation and then later diverting them to the Kashmir cause in the late 1980s.

Zia's era also marked the most stable period for Pakistan's largest province, Balochistan, in the history of the country. This was mostly due to his appointing General Rahimuddin Khan as Martial Law Governor of Balochistan. Rahim's efficient and iron-fisted rule completely subdued the educationally-crippling feudal families, and also prevented an influx of drugs and weaponry in the province.

His era was also marked by the Islamization of the society. Being himself a devout Wahhabi, he promoted Wahhabism. It is said that Saudi Arabia's strong relationship with Pakistan was at its peak with the General being in power.

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