General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (12 August 1924 – 17 August 1988) was a four-star general who became the sixth President of Pakistan after declaring martial law in 1977. He served as the head of state from 1978 until his death in a plane crash in 1988. He remains the country’s longest-serving head of state and Chief of Army Staff.
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Educated at St. Stephen's College, Delhi and the Royal Indian Military Academy at Dehradun, Zia saw action in World War II as a British Indian Army officer in Burma and Malaya, before opting for Pakistan in 1947 and fighting as a tank commander in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965. In 1970, he led a military training mission to Jordan, proving instrumental to defeating the Black September insurgency against King Hussein.[3] In recognition, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto appointed Zia Chief of Army Staff in 1976 and awarded him the Hilal-i-Imtiaz medal.[4]
Following civil disorder, Zia deposed Bhutto in a military coup and declared martial law on 5 July 1977.[5] Bhutto was controversially tried by the Supreme Court and executed less than two years later for allegedly authorizing the murder of Nawab Muhammad Ahmed Khan Kasuri, a political opponent.[6] Assuming the presidency in 1978, Zia played a major role in the Soviet–Afghan War. Backed by the United States and Saudi Arabia, Zia systematically coordinated the Afghan mujahideen against the Soviet occupation throughout the 1980s.[7][8] This culminated in the Soviet Union's withdrawal in 1989, but also led to the proliferation of millions of refugees, with heroin and weaponry into Pakistan's frontier province.
Internationally Zia bolstered ties with China and the United States, and emphasized Pakistan's role in the Islamic world, while relations with India worsened amid the Siachen conflict and accusations that Pakistan was aiding the Khalistan movement. Domestically, Zia passed broad-ranging legislation as part of Pakistan's Islamization, curbed civil liberties, and heightened press censorship.[9] He also escalated Pakistan's atomic bomb project, and instituted industrialization and deregulation, helping Pakistan's economy become the fastest-growing in South Asia,[10] overseeing the highest GDP growth in the country's history.[11] After lifting martial law and holding non-partisan elections in 1985, Zia appointed Muhammad Khan Junejo Prime Minister but accumulated more presidential powers via the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution.[12] After Junejo signed the Geneva Accords in 1988 against Zia's wishes, and called for an inquiry into the Ojhri Camp disaster, Zia dismissed Junejo's government and announced fresh elections in November 1988. Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq was killed along with several of his top military officials and two American diplomats in a mysterious plane crash near Bahawalpur on 17 August 1988.
To this day, Zia remains a polarizing figure in Pakistan's history, credited for preventing wider Soviet incursions into the region as well as economic prosperity, but decried for weakening democratic institutions and passing laws encouraging religious intolerance.[13][14] He is also cited for promoting the early political career of Nawaz Sharif, who would be thrice elected Prime Minister.[15][16]
Zia is credited with stopping an expected Soviet invasion of Pakistan. Former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki Al-Faisal, who worked with Zia during the 1980s against the Soviets, described Zia in the following words: "He was a very steady and smart person with a geo-strategic mind, particularly after the invasion by Soviets. He was very dedicated in preventing the Soviet invasion of Pakistan."[17]
Early life and family
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Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq was born into a Punjabi Arain family in Jullundar, Punjab Province of British India,[18] on 12 August 1924. Zia-ul-Haq was the second child of Muhammad Akbar Ali, who worked in the administrative corps of the Army GHQ of India Command of British Armed Forces in Delhi and Simla, prior to the independence of India from British colonial rule in 1947.[19] Zia’s father was noted for his religiosity, and insisted that his seven children offer their daily morning prayers and learn the Qur’an.[20] Due to his father's role in the civil service, Zia spent his childhood between the hill station of Simla and Jalandhar as Akbar Ali followed the British administration north during the summers.[21]
After completing his initial education in Simla, Zia attended Delhi's prestigious St. Stephen's College, an Anglican missionary school, for his BA degree in History, from which he graduated with distinction in 1943.[19] He was admitted to the Royal Indian Military Academy at Dehradun, graduating in May 1945 among the last group of officers to be commissioned before the independence of India.[22] During his collegiate years, he was noted as an extraordinary talent.[19] In 1947, while his family was in a refugee camp, Captain Zia was the escort officer for the last train of refugees to leave Babina, an armoured corps training center in Uttar Pradesh, a difficult journey that took seven days, during which the passengers were under constant fire as communal violence broke out in the aftermath of Partition.[23]
In 1950, he married Shafiq Jahan, a relative, and the daughter of a Ugandan-Indian doctor from Kampala.[24] Begum Shafiq Zia died on 6 January 1996.[25] Zia is survived by his sons, Muhammad Ijaz-ul-Haq, (born 1953),[26] who went into politics and became a cabinet minister in the government of Nawaz Sharif, and Anwar-ul-Haq (born 1960)[27][28] and his daughters, Zain[29][30][31] (born 1972),[32] a special needs child, Rubina Saleem, who is married to a Pakistani banker and has been living in the United States since 1980,[33] and Quratulain Zia who currently lives in London, and is married to Pakistani doctor, Adnan Majid.[34]
Military service
Zia was commissioned in the British Indian Army in the Guides Cavalry on 12 May 1943 after graduating from the Officer Training School Mhow[35] and fought against Japanese forces in Burma in World War II. After Pakistan gained its independence through a partition in 1947, Zia joined the newly formed Pakistan Army as a Captain in the Guides Cavalry Frontier Force Regiment. He also served in 13th Lancers and 6 Lancers. He was trained in the United States during 1962–1964 at the US Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. After that, he returned to take over as Directing Staff (DS) at Command and Staff College, Quetta.[36] During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, Zia is said to have been the Assistant Quartermaster of the 101st Infantry Brigade.[37]
He was then promoted as Lieutenant General and was appointed commander of the II Strike Corps at Multan in 1975. On 1 March 1976, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto approved then-three star rank general Lieutenant-General Zia as Chief of Army Staff and to be elevated to four-star rank.[38]
At the time of his nominating the successor to the outgoing Chief of Army Staff General Tikka Khan, the Lieutenant Generals in order of seniority were: Muhammad Shariff, Akbar Khan, Aftab Ahmed, Azmat Baksh Awan, 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.[39] However, the senior most at that time, Lieutenant-General Mohammad Shariff, though promoted to General, was made the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, a constitutional post akin to President Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry.[40]
Husain Haqqani argues that Bhutto chose Zia ahead of many senior officers for ethnic and caste reasons, thinking than an Arain would not make alliance with the predominantly Pashtun and Rajput military officers in order to overthrow him, and this is also the reason why he let Zia push for more Islam in the armed forces, like when he changed the army’s credo to “Iman, Taqwa, Jihad fi Sabil Allah” or when he offered books of Mawdudi to his officers as prizes during various competitions, despite the strong ideological antagonism between Bhutto and the Islamist thinker.[41]
Planning of coup
Prime Minister Bhutto began facing considerable criticism and increasing unpopularity as his term progressed; the democratic socialists alliance who had previously allied with Bhutto began to diminish as time progressed.[6] Initially targeting leader of the opposition Vali Khan and his opposition National Awami Party (NAP), also a socialist party. 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 in Balochistan Province for alleged secessionist activities[42] and culminating in the banning of the party and arrest of much of its leadership after the death of a close lieutenant of Bhutto's, Hayat Sherpao, in a 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 leading dissident Ahmed Raza Kasuri's father led to public outrage and intra-party hostility as Bhutto was accused of masterminding the crime. PPP leaders such as Ghulam Mustafa Khar openly condemned Bhutto and called for protests against his regime. The political crisis in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) and Balochistan intensified as civil liberties remained suspended, and an estimated 100,000 troops deployed there were accused of abusing human rights and killing large numbers of civilians.[43]
1977 Parliamentary elections
On 8 January 1977, a large number of opposition political parties grouped, with the help of the United States C.I.A., to form the Pakistan National Alliance[43] (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 on opinions 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. Despite this, there was a high voter turnout in the national elections; however, as provincial elections were held amidst low voter turnout and an opposition boycott, the PNA declared the newly elected Bhutto government as illegitimate.[citation needed]
Coup d'état
Soon, all the opposition leaders called for the overthrow of Bhutto's regime.[6] Political and civil disorder intensified, which led to more unrest.[44] On 21 April 1977, Bhutto imposed martial law in the major cities of Karachi, Lahore and Hyderabad.[45] However, a compromise agreement between Bhutto and opposition was ultimately reported.[46] Zia planned the Coup d'état carefully, as he knew Bhutto had integral intelligence in the Pakistan Armed Forces, and many officers, including Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal Zulfiqar Ali Khan and Major-General Tajammul Hussain Malik, GOC of 23rd Mountain Division, Major-General Naseerullah Babar, DG of Directorate-General for the Military Intelligence (DGMI) and Vice-Admiral Syed Mohammad Ahsan, were loyal to Bhutto.[citation needed]
The coup, (called "Operation Fair Play") transpired in the small hours of 5 July 1977. Before the announcement of any agreement, Bhutto and members of his cabinet were arrested by troops of Military Police under the order of Zia.[43] Bhutto tried to call Zia but all telephone lines were disconnected. When Zia spoke to him later, he reportedly told Bhutto that he was sorry that he had been forced to perform such an "unpleasant task".[47]
Zia and his military government portrayed the coup as a "spontaneous response to a difficult situation", but his response was a complete contradiction. Soon after the coup, Zia told the British journalist Edward Behr of Newsweek:
However, Zia's Chief of Army Staff General Khalid Mahmud Arif contradicted Zia's statement when Arif noted that the coup had already been planned, and the senior leadership of Pakistan Armed Forces had solid information. Therefore, Arif met with Bhutto on an emergency basis, stressing and urging Bhutto to "rush negotiations with the opposition".[3][page needed] By Arif's and independent expert's accounts, the talks had not broken down even though the coup was very much in the offing. Zia further argued that Fair Play against Bhutto had been necessitated by the prospect of a civil war that Bhutto had been planning, by distributing weapons to his supporters. However, Arif strongly rejected Zia's remarks on Bhutto, and citing no evidence that weapons were found or recovered at any of the party's election offices, the military junta did not prosecute Bhutto on the charge of planning civil war.[3][page needed]
Immediately, the Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Mohammad Shariff announced his and the navy's strong support for Zia and his military government. But, the Chief of Air Staff General Zulfikar Ali Khan remains unsupported while the Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Muhammad Shariff remains neutral, while he silently expressed his support to Prime minister Zulfikar Bhutto.[3][page needed] In 1978, Zia pressured President Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry to appoint General Anwar Shamim as Chief of Air Staff; and Admiral Karamat Rahman Niazi as Chief of Naval Staff in 1979.[49] On Zia's recommendation, President Illahi appointed Admiral Mohammad Shariff as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, hence making the Admiral the highest ranking officer and principal military adviser overlooking all of the inter-services, including the Chiefs of Staff of the respected forces.[49] In 1979, the Chiefs of Army, Navy, and the Air Force, including the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff validated the coup as constitutional and legal under the war-torn circumstances, pledging their support to Zia as well.[3][page needed]
United States sponsorship
The United States, notably the Reagan Administration, was an ardent supporter of Zia's military regime and a close ally of Pakistan's conservative-leaning ruling military establishment.[50] The Reagan administration declared Zia's regime as the "front line" ally of the United States in the fight against the threat of Communism.[50][51] American legislators and senior officials most notable were Zbigniew Brzezinski, Henry Kissinger, Charlie Wilson, Joanne Herring, and the civilian intelligence officers Michael Pillsbury and Gust Avrakotos, and senior US military officials General John William Vessey, and General Herbert M. Wassom, had been long associated with the Zia military regime where they had made frequent trips to Pakistan advising on expanding the idea of establishment in the political circle of Pakistan.[50] Nominally, the American conservatism of Ronald Reagan's Republican Party influenced Zia to adopt his idea of Islamic conservatism as the primary line of his military government, forcefully enforcing the Islamic and other religious practices in the country.[50]
The socialist orientation had greatly alarmed the capitalist forces in Pakistan and as well as brought a clinging bell tolls alarm to the United States who feared the loss of Pakistan as an ally in the cold war.[3][page needed] Many of Pakistan's political scientists and historians widely suspected that the riots and coup against Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was orchestrated with help of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the United States Government because United States growing fear of Bhutto's socialist policies which were seen as sympathetic towards the Soviet Union and had built a bridge that allowed Soviet Union to be involved in Pakistan, and had access through Pakistan's warm water port; something that the United States was unable to gain access since the establishment of Pakistan in 1947.[50][52] Former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark widely suspected the United States' involvement in bringing down the Bhutto's government, and publicly accused the United States' Government after attending the trial.[52] On the other hand, the United States refused any involvement in Bhutto's fall, and argued that it was Bhutto who had alienated himself over the five years.[3][page needed] While witnessing the dramatic fall of Bhutto, one US diplomat in American Embassy in Islamabad wrote that:
Postponement of elections and call for accountability
After assuming power as Chief Martial Law Administrator, Zia shortly appeared on national television, PTV promising to hold new and neutral parliamentary elections within the next 90 days[3][page needed]
My sole aim is to organize free and fair elections which would be held in October this year. Soon after the polls, power will be transferred to the elected representatives of the people. I give a solemn assurance that I will not deviate from this schedule.[53]
He also stated that the Constitution of Pakistan had not been abrogated, but temporarily suspended. Zia did not trust the civilian institutions and legislators to ensure the country's integrity and sovereignty[3][page needed] therefore, in October 1977, he announced the postponement of the electoral plan and decided to start an accountability process for the politicians.[54] On television, Zia strongly defended his decision for postponing the elections and demanded that "scrutiny of political leaders who had engaged in malpractice in the past".[54] Thus, the PNA adopted its policy of "retribution first, elections later".[54] Zia's policy severely tainted his credibility as many saw the broken promise as malicious.[55] Another motive was that Zia widely suspected that once out of power the size of the Pakistan Peoples Party rallies would swell and better performance in elections was possible.[3][page needed] This led to request for postponement of elections by the right-wing Islamists as well as left-wing socialists, formerly allied with Bhutto, which displaced Bhutto in the first place. Zia dispatched an intelligence unit, known as ISI's Political Wing, sending Brigadier-General Taffazul Hussain Siddiqiui, to Bhutto's native Province, Sindh, to assess whether people would accept martial law. The Political Wing also contacted the several right-wing Islamists and conservatives, promising an election, with PNA power-sharing the government with Zia. Zia successfully divided and separated the secular forces from right-wing Islamists and conservatives, and later purged each member of the secular front.[3][page needed]
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.[54] A white paper document was issued, incriminating the deposed Bhutto government on several counts.[54]
It is reported by senior officers that when Zia met federal secretaries for the first time as leader of the country after martial law, he said that "He does not possess the charisma of Bhutto, personality of Ayub Khan or the legitimacy of Liaquat Ali Khan" thereby implying how can he be marketed
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