General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq was the General who enforced Marshal Law for the third time in the brief history of Pakistan. Second child and the eldest son of Muhammad Akram, a teacher in the Army, Zia-ul-Haq was born on August 12 1924 at Jalundhar. After receiving his early education from Government High School Simla, he did his B.A Honors from St. Stephen College, Delhi. He was commissioned in the British Army in 1943 and served in Burma, Malaya and Indonesia during the Second World War. When the war was over, he decided to join armored core. At the time of Independence, like most of the Muslims officers in the British Army, Zia-ul-Haq opted to join Pakistan Army. As a Major he got an opportunity to do a training course in the Commander and Staff College of United States of America in 1963-64. During the war of 1965, he acted as the Assistant Quarter Master of 101 Infantry Division, which was posted at Kiran sector. He remained posted at Jordon from 1967-70, where he trained military men of the country. He was appointed as Core Commander of Multan in 1975.

On April 1 1976, in a surprise move, the then Prime Minister of Pakistan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, appointed Zia-ul-Haq as the Chief of the Army Staff. It is interesting to note that five senior Generals were superseded. Bhutto probably wanted somebody as the head of the armed forces, who would not prove to be a threat for him and the best available option was the simple General, who apparently was interested only in offering prayers and playing golf. However, history proved Bhutto wrong, and Zia-ul-Haq proved to be much smarter than he looked. When the political unsuitability reached its climax due to the deadlock between Bhutto and the leadership of Pakistan National Alliance (PNA) on the issue of general elections, Zia-ul-Haq took advantage of the situation. On July 5, 1977, he carried out a bloodless coup overthrowing Bhutto’s government and enforced Marshal Law in the country

After assuming power as Chief Martial Law Administrator, Zia-ul-Haq promised to hold National and Provincial Assembly elections in the next 90 days and to hand over power to the representatives of the nation. However, in October 1977 he announced the postponement of the electoral plan and decided to start an accountability process of the politicians. In a statement he said that he changed his decision due to the strong public demand for the scrutiny of political leaders who had indulged in malpractice in the past. The Disqualification Tribunal was formulated and many former Members of Parliament were disqualified from participating in politics at any level for the next seven years. A white paper was also issued which criticized the activities of PPP’s government under Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.

With the retirement of Fazl Ellahi, Zia-ul-Haq also assumed the office of President of Pakistan on September 16 1978. In the absence of a parliament, Zia-ul-Haq decided to set up an alternative system. He introduced Majlis-i-Shura in 1980. Most of the members of the Shura were intellectuals; scholars, ulema, journalists, economists and professionals belonging to different fields of life. The Shura was to act as a board of advisors for the President. The idea of establishing this institution was not bad but the main problem was that all 284 members of the Shura were to be nominated by the President and thus there was no room available for the difference of opinion.

In the mid 1980s, Zia-ul-Haq decided to fulfill his promise of holding elections in the country. But before handing over the power to the public representatives, he decided to secure his position. Referendum was held in the county in December 1985 and the masses were given the option to elect or reject the General as the future president of Pakistan. According to the official result, more than 95% of the vote cast, were in favor of Zia-ul-Haq and he was elected as president for the next five years. Here one should not ignore the fact that the question asked in the referendum was phrased in a way that Zia-ul-Haq’s win was related to the process of Islamization in the country.

After being elected as President, Zia-ul-Haq decided to hold elections in the country in March 1985 on non-party basis. Most of the political parties decided to boycott the elections but election results showed that many victors belonged to one party or the other. To make things easier for him, the General nominated the Prime Minister from amongst the members of the Assembly. To many, his nomination of Muhammad Khan Junejo as the Prime Minister was because he wanted a simple person at the post, who could act as a puppet in his hands. Before handing over the power to the new government he made certain amendments in the constitution and got them endorsed from the parliament before lifting the sate of emergency in the county. Due to this eighth amendment in the constitution, the powers of president were increased and the president possessed complete power to take any step, which he deems fit, on the plea of safeguarding national integrity.