He was the sixth President of Pakistan who assumed power in a military coup on July 5, 1977 removing populist Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Having declared martial law for the third time in Pakistan’s history, he remained the country’s longest-serving head of state, ruling more than eleven years.
Zia is most noted for his efforts to introduce religion as a public policy of the government into mainstream Pakistani society and built close relations with the United States and support for the US-backed mujahideen resistance against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. The seed of extremism, sown by the so-called Islamisation process of Zia regime in the country has now turned into a lush tree with its branches of radicalization of large segments of the society.
He started his military career in World War II as a British Indian Army officer After graduating from the Delhi University with a BA degree in History. In 1970, he led the Pakistani training mission in Jordan, proving instrumental to putting down Palestinian Black September insurgency against King Hussein. Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto appointed Zia as Chief of Army Staff in 1976, over several senior military officers. He deposed Bhutto in a coup in so-called “Operation Fair Play” and imposed martial law over the country in July 1977.
He get rid of popular former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was controversially tried and executed by the Supreme Court less than two years later, for authorising the murder of a political opponent.Zia ul Haq assuming the presidency of Pakistan in 1978, played a key role in the US war against Soviets in neighboring Afghanistan which was culminated in the Soviet forces pullout in 1989. His adventure in Afghanistan also led to the proliferation of millions of refugees, with heroin and weaponry into Pakistan. The fundamentalist Islamic ideology that he propagated has pervaded every aspect of Pakistani society. Pakistan Studies and Islamiat were made compulsory subjects up to the university level. The Islamic laws that Zia instituted, such as the Hudood Ordinance that massively disenfranchises women and prevents them from seeking justice in cases of sexual abuse, have prevented Pakistan from becoming even remotely modern and have further endangered the already threatened religious minorities. He promoted the anti-Shia sentiment that snowballed into years of sectarian conflict and supported Sunni Muslim terrorist groups that target the religious minorities in Pakistan. For the favour and financial backing of the US, Zia promoted the growth of jihadi groups in Afghanistan, catalysing a chain of events leading to Afghanistan’s current instability. His foreign policy misadventures are not merely relics of the past; the repercussions of Zia’s interventions in foreign wars are still felt in Pakistan today. The terrorist groups that Zia laid the foundations for, both at home and abroad, have come back to haunt us and the country has been plagued with a security crisis and gruesome terrorist attacks for years. General Ziaul Haq may be long gone but his policies have played a significant role in shaping modern day Pakistan. The terrorists represent the far right of the spectrum of Islamists that Zia created. The fundamentalist narrative is now so deeply rooted in our society that it seems impossible to combat. And unfortunately, the counter-narratives are not strong enough to encourage a healthy debate that can lead the country out of darkness.
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