Biography of Muhammad Zia Ul-Haq :- Pakistani military and politician, President of the Republic from 1978 to 1988, trained at the Quetta Command School, during World War II he fought as a professional soldier in the British Army in campaigns Of Indonesia, Burma and Malaya, after which it finished the rank of officer (1945).
Biography of Muhammad Zia Ul-Haq
- Born:- 12 August 1924, Jalandhar, India
- Prime Minister:- Muhammad Khan Junejo
- Spouse:- Shafiq Jahan (m. 1950–1988)
- Burried:- Faisal Mosque, Islamabad
- Assassinated:- 17 August 1988, Bahawalpur
- Organizations Founded:- Defence Housing Authority, Defence Housing Authority, Karachi, Pakistan School Muscat
With the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947, Zia joined the brand new Pakistani Army, where he made a career in command, training or organization. In 1964, with the rank of lieutenant colonel, was destined to the School of Quetta.
See Also: Biography of Hossain Mohammad Ershad
In 1969 he was promoted to general of brigade and in 1972 to general of division. Always linked to the armored forces, he participated in the second (1965) and third (1971) wars against India, and when he was in Jordan in 1970 he fought alongside the Royal Army in the civil war (“Black September”) against the fedayin of The PLO, with such success that King Hussein came to decorate it.
In April 1975 he was promoted to lieutenant general, with command over an army corps, and on March 1, 1976, Prime Minister Zulficar Ali Bhutto was appointed Chief of Staff of the Pakistan Army.
In such a position and in a context of serious conflict following the legislative elections (won by Bhutto and reported as fraudulent by the opposition), on 5 July 1977 Zia led a bloodless coup, suspended political parties and was proclaimed Chief administrator of martial law.
Despite the initial clarification that her stay in power was merely temporary, until internal stability was regained, Zia postponed the elections indefinitely and, ignoring international clemency petitions, did not prevent Bhutto’s execution in 1979 after finding him guilty of an alleged complicity in the assassination of a political rival.
Became a dictator (formally assumed the presidency of the Republic in September 1978), Zia severely repressed the never-silent protests of the civil opposition and undertook a gradual Islamization of Pakistani society, in which he found the support of the traditional parties and Opposed to the secularism that Bhutto had represented.
This line disturbed the United States, who nonetheless continued to assist Zia economically by providing bases for the Afghan mujahideen fighting the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul.
On December 19, 1984, it submitted a referendum on its Islamist policy, with the result of 97.7% favorable votes, on a participation of 62.1%.
On February 25, 1985, the first legislative elections were held since 1977, with no party base, and on December 30, after attempting to restore an image of normalcy, he lifted martial law.
On May 29, 1988, he hardened his position with the dissolution of the National Assembly and the dismissal of Muhammad Khan Junejo at the head of the Government, since he took over himself.
The following June 15 decreed the introduction of sharia (Islamic law), whose draconian penalties justified as the only means to ensure public order and deter potential offenders.
On August 17, the plane in which Zia was traveling, the US ambassador and 28 other people, includes the army chief of staff and several generals, crashed minutes after taking off from Bahawalpur airport.
The incident, at least mysterious, made many think of an attack, and recent investigations indicated that a gas could have slept passengers and crew and caused the crash. A sophisticated attack, if it had occurred, suggested the intervention of the secret services of some power.
The fact is that the death of Zia, who happened provisionally in the presidency Ghulam Ishaq Khan, accelerated the return of the democracy in Pakistan.
In the legislative elections on November 16, the People’s Party of Pakistan (PPP), once headed by Bhutto and now by his daughter Benazir, who in recent years had led the protests and suffered government persecution, won.
