Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

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**Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq**

Date of Birth:	August 19, 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 (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 born in Jalandhar (in present day India) in 1924 as the second child of a school teacher named Mohammad Akram. 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.

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.

Zia and Jimmy Carter

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 the predominantly Muslim Pakistan voted for Zia-ul-Haq's Islamization, thereby inadvertantly also electing Zia-ul-Haq as President for five years.

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 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. His death is still a controversial 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 theory. Zia-ul-Haq's remains are housed in a small tomb outside the Faisal Mosque in Islamabad.

1 Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan
2 Legacy
3 See also
4 External links

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Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan

The USSR, in its quest for warm waters, invaded Afghanistan in 1979. The USA found that their only ally in the region, with the Shah of Iran dead, was Pakistan. Zia ul-Haq's image of yet another military dictator transformed overnight into a leader of the free world in the East. Accepting to fight a war in Afghanistan by proxy, Zia famously rejected the United States' offer of 400 million dollars aid as 'peanuts'. Probably unbeknownst to Zia, President Jimmy Carter used to be a peanut farmer. Zia did not live long enough to see the Soviets withdraw from Afghanistan; but the Soviet invasion (what he described as Brezhnev's Christmas Present) did wonders for his image abroad.

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Legacy

General Zia's most enduring legacy is 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. No political government has yet the courage to rescind this order.

Economic planning in the Zia era left the country more indebted than ever, with a parallel black economy being managed with impunity by smugglers and black marketers. Nationalized banks and financial institutions were milked dry to please and retain his supporters. Despite the resumption of American aid on an unprecedented scale, there were serious shortages of facilities for education, health services and social development. University campuses remained closed for most of Zia's era. While disparaged by Pakistan's liberal elements, Zia remains to this day a hero among more conservative Pakistanis as well as the Army.

Preceded by: Gen. Tikka Khan	Chief of Army Staff, Pakistan	Succeeded by: Gen. Mirza Aslam Beg
Preceded by: Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry	President of Pakistan	Succeeded by: Ghulam Ishaq Khan