A Very Personal Account of Pakistan's Downfall Under Zia ul Haq--the Proto Taliban President

[Nein]

It has been relatively recently that Zia has become Pakistan's great Aunt Sally. He had never been popular among the educated elites and leftists, but he played cleverly on the religious sentiments and aspirations of the middle-class and ignorant masses and "almost" got away with it but then the seeds of sectarian and religious extremism he had sown started bearing 'fruit' and the masses became disillusioned with the "Mard e Momin, Mard e Haq". For all his shortcomings, Zia had been a diehard patriot.

Middle Class and the Lower classes are the ones who fight and save your asses you have the nerve to look down upon them.

 

[bananarepublic]

My family does talk how in the 80s the region saw massive amounts of bloodshed due to Zia policy of saudism towards its people many areas which were once shia(twelvers) got wiped out and were replaced by others.

 

[M. Sarmad]

Middle Class and the Lower classes are the ones who fight and save your asses you have the nerve to look down upon them.

Deliberate dyslexia with reading comprehension ?

 

[Xestan]

Absolutely baseless, people were not much into politics in those days outside of big cities, for people it never mattered who was ruling in islamabad, communication means were also very limited, 90% of people neither had TV nor telephone or even used to buy a newspaper. There was no political hysteria going on for 24 hours on daily basis in 80s the way it happens in modern times. Zia ul Haq never appeased anyone in his tenure. He was genuinely a religious person (yes such people do exist in pakistan and have always existed in the past too) that is why he wanted to conform some laws of pakistan to the spirit of islamic teachings but he wasn't doing these changes in laws to get any kind of "votes" of the people, he never needed them, come on he was a military dictator with firm grip on power till the last day of his life.

Apart from some hardcore People party's jiyalas and some elements from minority sects no one else had any issues with Zia regime, for a mainstream common pakistani particularly in punjab and kpk he was just another ruler like his predecessors.

Zia was, and still is the most unpopular ruler we ever had, probably Zardari can beat him. People were very much into politics back in the 80s. There was resentment within the Army against Zia, and almost resulted in the mutiny in 1980.

Your whole argument can be answered with footage of Benazir Bhutto's arrival in Lahore after Zia's death. Pakistan has yet to see a crowd like that.

 

[313ghazi]

This thread is basically 1 mans wishes on he wants everyone else to behave, because everything else is not moderate. I love how self declared liberals, become so il-liberal on such matters.

I consider myself conservative when it comes to matters of religion. I live and grew up in a society which until recently I considerd to be liberal. It's not anymore, it's quickly turning facist.

Dress how you like, do what you like in the privacy of your own home. If a woman wants to wear a pants suit with shoulder pads, let her be free to make that fashion faux pas. If she wants to wear a blue shuttlecock burqa, let her be free to do so. This is my personal opinion. I won't impose it on anyone else.

Legislation should be done on basis of the values a society holds dear. If in Pakistan that is Islam, than we should legislate based on it's fundementals, not on our whims of what it ought to be like.

 

[Meengla]

It's weekend. Back here for a tiny bit.
@VCheng: Of course I don't have the answers to what Pakistan should be doing except to voice my personal opinion here. I think Pakistan is on right track under the current govt. The mistrusts between the Army and the Civilian govts since Musharraf's ouster is gone now. There is a rigorous process of accountability, revenue raising, international engagements, bending over backward to make peace with India... All these are going to bear fruit. What I see as Pakistan's biggest challenges are water resource management and avoiding getting entangled in regional wars... My advice would be to allow at least ten-year of stability inside Pakistan: Recover as much as possible from the Looters of the country, banish their top leadership to exile but DON'T destroy opposition political parties.

Coming to the OP topic.
Did I even imply to impose a dress code upon anyone? I mean look at video #2 and 3 in OP. Was Nazia 'Fahash' (obscene) in video #2 vs #3? I don't think so. Because of you think so then you must note that today many Pakistani ladies, both on media like tv and on the streets, dress like that. Now, I don't care if everyone wears Burkahs but that should be THEIR choice, not some imposed one. Many women in Pakistan wore full Burkahs before Zia and that was fine. My own lady teacher who used to come to our house teaching Quran wore a full Burkah. So why would I oppose that? If you are still too hung up on that then what I can say more about that? BTW, Zia didn't just stop at ladies dress. As I said, from trying to have Arabic is the national language of Pakistan to banning make-up for PTV ladies staff to banning Urdu Feature Films replays on PTV, Zia's attempted at social engineering of Pakistan was/is unique in Pakistan's 70+ year old history: No one before him, no one after him--not even his self-declared protege Nawaz Sharif-- has done so. In short, Zia's goal was to destroy the moderate Sufi version of Islam in Pakistan. In contrast, today's Pakistan ruler Imran Khan is deeply religious but is he an extremist like Zia? No. Is Pakistani society less religious today than Zia? No. Is Pakistan society more tolerant today than under Zia? Yes. Pakistan is going back to it's Sufi roots. Pakistan can't have the social engineering as was introduced in Iran and Afghanistan in the 1970s with consequences for both countries.

Let's also discuss Zia's bravery a bit. People here are projecting Zia as some Knight in Shining Armor who rushed to the Torkham Border waving a sword challenging the mighty Red Army. Well... Nothing particularly brave about him. He did what any other civilian/military ruler of Pakistan would have done then: United States backed West had Pakistan's back against any Soviet direct attack on Pakistan, add in the $$ support of powerful Islamic countries... Zia was not particularly brave. Get that out of your system! In fact, Zia was coward and insecure: After toppling ZAB in 1977, he had a young recent graduate Benazir incarcerated and had jailed her again for years--real jail, btw, had ZAB buried quickly in early hours of the day, had even tried to prevent PM Junejo to allow Benazir's arrival back in Pakistan in 1986... In fact, cowardly Zia was so afraid of dissent that he started the proverbial 'midnight knocks' at newspaper houses where they examined and banned any content threatening to Zia--I don't know how many of you here are old enough to remember reading newspapers in morning with entire columns of content missing and had the distinction of FLOGGING journalists for dissenting views!!! The brave guy had virtually banned the word 'Bhutto' from the newspapers!

About Zia's economic era. I never believed that Zia or even his sons were personally corrupt. And Pakistan did reasonably well under him but then Pakistan did even better under Musharraf if GDP growth rate is the sole criteria. BUT Zia did leave behind powerful entrenched political groups whose wealth grew exponentially under him. Corruption became the norm in Pakistan's politics under those Muslim League politicians and to this day Pakistan is suffering from the influence of those politicians: The Lost Decade of 1990s and the Lost Decade of 2008+ is a story of Muslim Leagues vs PPP--a reality which came to fruition because Big Money instead of ideologies became the central force in Pakistan's politics. That was not before 1977. It is said that when Benazir came back to Pakistan in 1986, she saw that she was outgunned in terms of money by Nawaz Sharif so she too chose the path of corruption. Politics and electioneering need money!! The rest is a sad history.

Now a bit about Zia's 'image' issue. He is at the bottom of Pakistan's rulers despite the absolute rule covering a full 4th of Pakistan's history! I find it utterly laughable that some people think that it's some PPP propaganda. Let me tell you that after toppling ZAB in 1977, PTV on almost daily basis would popup up these 'Qartas e Abeez' (White Paper) which ruthlessly 'exposed' all manners of bad by PPP. Fact is that, Zia had the absolute control from 1977-1988--PTV was basically the only news outlet, there was no internet. Zia had the control of propaganda front. But his rule was so detrimental to Pakistan that, within a short period of his death, he is regarded in the worst of Pakistan's rulers and perhaps only Asif Zardari may rank even lower.

A bit about internal divisions inside Pakistan. Under him, the Afghan refugees were allowed to settle deep in Pakistan. They brought the drug and guns culture with them. I remember well into the 1970s, tools of violence were Lathis (sticks), knives, and occasional pistol. But in just a few years into the 1980s, no less than Kalashnikov rifles were being employed. Much of Pakistan burned like never before that period. Same with drugs: Afyoon (Opium) and Bhang were the drugs in the 1970s. But a few years into the 1980s, millions of Heroin addicts roamed the streets of Pakistan. This was under Zia's absolute rule and a direct result of him allowing the Afghans a free hand in Pakistan!! All within a short time span.

Political evolution of Pakistan was also arrested. Made up, unimaginative politicians like Nawaz Sharif were installed. In order to neutralize the now-alienated religious parties in Karachi, Zia at least tolerated, if not nurtured MQM. In order to neatralize PPP in interior Sindh, Zia used to make frequent trips to Jiye Sindh (essentially, party which wanted Sindh to breakaway from Pakistan) founder G.M. Sayyed--an unrepentant anti-Pakistan person in the mould of Sheik Mujib.

PS. I wanted to have this thread as an account of my 'very personal' view of transition of Pakistan. Unfortunately, some people can't think beyond the 'liberal' vs conservative angle, can't think beyond clothes' choice. In this post I ended up describing other situations under Zia. Perhaps I will be back with more. But mindless banter is not my way in this forum even if they carry on their ways....

 

[VCheng]

@VCheng: Of course I don't have the answers to what Pakistan should be doing except to voice my personal opinion here. I think Pakistan is on right track under the current govt. The mistrusts between the Army and the Civilian govts since Musharraf's ouster is gone now. There is a rigorous process of accountability, revenue raising, international engagements, bending over backward to make peace with India... All these are going to bear fruit.

I sure hope so buddy. Color me skeptical thus far. May be the rest of PMIK's term will actually show a meaningful difference between the Naya and Purana Pakistans. Thus far, they look awfully similar to me.

Yes, you are correct both the civilian setup and the military leadership appear to be on the same page, but Pakistan's basic issues fester and assume grave proportions day by day: population growth, abysmal social indices, resource shortages, totally blinkered foreign policy, the list goes on. Same page yes, but the wrong book!

And if PDF is a representative microcosm of the real thing, the thought processes that have taken hold by design will not allow any timely solutions to any, let alone all, of the above issues. What Zia did, horrible as it was, will turn out to be just a preview.

 

[proudindian20]

Pakistan was much more advanced socially and economically than India before the Islamization drive by Zia-ul-Haq. It was only after 1990 that India started becoming more liberal.

 

[GriffinsRule]

Liberalism have no future neither in Pakistan nor any where in the world. This is concept which is now getting rejected every where. And if your standard is crap on tv than under Zia time best dramas were produced in Pakistan.

You could argue that Alama Iqbal was a liberal

 

[Psychic]

Your whole argument can be answered with footage of Benazir Bhutto's arrival in Lahore after Zia's death. Pakistan has yet to see a crowd like that.

We are basically a nation of "Chartay sooraj ke pujari".
That explains the crowd.

And going by the size of the crowds, did you see Mumtaz Qadri's funeral? Pakistan has yet to see a crowd like that.
Can I deduce similar results from the size of the crowd?

As far as elections are concerned, Sab paisay aur charb zubani ki game hai. Even a person like Imran had to rely on the same dirty lot to win.

Zia was, and still is the most unpopular ruler we ever had, probably Zardari can beat him.

Nawaz Sharif used to win elections by labeling himself as the janisheen of Zia-ul-Haq. Just like someone was beti of someone and someone is nawasa of that someone.
This fact disproves that Zia was unpopular.

Zia became unpopular during Musharraf's secularization drive. The so called Azad media started a smear campaign against him which made him unpopular a decade and a half after his death.