Why blame Zia for every ill in Pakistan?

[Leader]

By Salman Zafar3 hours ago

General Ziaul Haq, Pakistan’s former army chief of staff, seized power in July 1977 and became president in 1978. PHOTO: REUTERS


On the eve of Ziaul Haq’s 27th death anniversary, his name still generates an animated response from Pakistanis. Browse around social media or the English press, and one gets the impression that there is no leader more disliked than him. He was brutal. He was un-democratic. He was authoritative. He destroyed Pakistan’s moderate socio-political fabric and turned the country into the fragile fundamentalist haven it is today.

Or did he?

Zia was an apolitical figure, or so Zulfikar Ali Bhutto thought, when he was appointed Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) in 1976. He ended up taking control of the country in the political chaos that ensued following the 1977 elections, and stayed on till the end of the Soviet-Afghan war in 1988 when he died in a plane crash.

With his span of influence beginning in 1976 as COAS, why does it appear that he is the poster boy of blame games around every ill in Pakistani society today?

Let’s go over some facts.

Presented by Liaquat Ali Khan, the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan passed the Objectives Resolution in 1949. It created the union between religion and state, proclaiming that the future Constitution of the country will be drafted according to Islam, and effectively serving as the prime building block towards religion becoming a public matter across the country. Every single non-Muslim member of the Constituent Assembly opposed this resolution, but to no avail.

Zia did not initiate this.

The Doctrine of Necessity was adduced by Chief Justice Muhammad Munir in 1954, to validate the dissolution of the first Constituent Assembly of Pakistan. It set the precedent for numerous extra-judicial actions by state actors in order to justify politically motivated steps.

Zia did not initiate this.

The One-Unit program was introduced in 1954, merging the four provinces of West Pakistan into a single province, just like East Pakistan. It fuelled ethnic tensions which were already running high in East Pakistan, marking the start of the erroneous narrative that promoted ‘One Pakistan’ over the ethnic, cultural and religious diversity in the country.

Zia did not initiate this.

The Constitution of 1956, active only till 1958, officially made Pakistan an Islamic Republic. Furthermore, it stated that the president of the country must be a Muslim, and no law in the country can be passed that goes against the teachings of the Holy Quran and Sunnah. The Constitution also gave the president the right to declare emergency, effectively laying out the red carpet for military intervention into politics.

Zia did not initiate this.

The first of Pakistan’s three coups took place in 1958, setting a precedent for military interventions in the future. President Iskander Mirza declared martial law following political turmoil in the country that saw four different prime ministers in the span of two years. He approved the appointment of General Ayub Khan as Chief Martial Law Administrator, but then attempted to dismiss him within a matter of weeks, only to subsequently be dismissed as Ayub Khan became president himself.

Zia did not initiate this.

The Constitution of 1962 established the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) back then as the Advisory CII. This is the same council that states that child marriages are not un-Islamic, speaks out against the domestic violence bill and does not support seeking consent from the first wife when it comes to a second marriage.

Zia did not initiate this.

During 1965-70, Bengali nationalism was further fuelled by the economic disparity between East and West Pakistan. Despite having over 60 per cent of the country’s total population, East Pakistan received only 30 per cent of the total spending. The notion that Bengalis were not “martially inclined” unlike Pakhtuns and Punjabis was still common in West Pakistan, and the India-Pakistani War of 1965 only added to these problems, as Pakistan’s military presence in the Eastern Wing was extremely weak with only one infantry division and a limited number of combat aircrafts without tank support.

Zia did not initiate this.

The West Pakistani civilian and military leadership refused to acknowledge the legitimate right of the East Pakistan based Awami League to form the government following its victory in the 1970 elections. The Bangladesh Liberation War followed, and witnessed war crimes by West Pakistan on its Eastern counterpart, ranging from ethnic cleansing, rape and mass murder, all culminating in one of the bloodiest genocides in modern history.

Zia did not initiate this.

Following the bloody 1974 Ahmadi riots, the second amendment to the 1973 Constitution took place and declared the Ahmadi community non-Muslim, making Pakistan the first, and to date the only country in the world to do so and in the process giving constitutional cover to the persecution of the community across the country.

Zia did not initiate this.

The charismatic Bhutto, left-leaning originally, but sadly opportunistic towards the end, was found guilty of Mohammad Ahmad Kasuri’s murder in a shambolic trial and hanged in 1979, two years after Pakistan’s second military takeover in 1977.

Zia orchestrated every part of this.

Zia deserves a lot of blame for policies undertaken during his time, and rightfully so. But let’s not kid ourselves and pretend that all was honky dory before he came along, or that things would have been better if he had not taken over. If it was not him, it would have been someone else. Our history started sowing the seeds for a Zia from the very beginning. He was just there to take advantage of an already messed up state of affairs.

Using Zia as a scapegoat for our problems is easy, and extremely convenient. But the fact is that our country’s demons go much deeper into history than we might like to admit.

Why blame Zia for every ill in Pakistan? – The Express Tribune Blog


The very fact that not a single party/ "leader" had managed to stop Pakistan spiralling into crap or even fix any of the previous crap left by Zia's 27 yrs of death is EQUALLY to blame!

27 yrs not a single man could fix Pakistani politics, sectarian crimes, stupid laws and amendments yet everyone is all high to jump on Zia but not the 27 yrs of failed politics

Germany is over Hitler, we arent even through with Zia. its PPP politics.

Or they used it for their own benefits ?
Who & what was his accounts the time of general zia shb ?
I mean our noora king ?lol

oh tou zinda aae... ma tou samja sharam say doob gea hoga... aaj moulana fazlurehman ko 90 par dkh kar!!

 

[Side-Winder]

This "kalishnikov" culture that you speak of was already prevalent in FATA, from the times of Quaid-e-Azam. Part of the agreement for the FATA to be included into Pakistan was that it remain semi-autonomous, and for the tribals to have the right to bear arms.

Do you think the tribals went to capture a third of Kashmir with sticks and rocks?

Hi, What do you think why we are in this big of mess today? is it because of the tribals of FATA? No son it's because of those so called jihadis 'Made' in our madrassahs and Called in during the afghan war by Zia from all over the world. it's because of the Those madarassahs that generated jihadis injected with extremist jihadi ideologies to fight the holy war. it's because of promotion of those extremist ideologies of the holy jihad against soviets.. it's because of the violence that our madrassahs taught to the young kids. Stop lying to yourself. we not only destroyed our own social fabric but also of those afghanis too, We are responsible for all those crimes committed against humanity during and after the creation of taliban. We supported mujahideens and later made them fight each other for the sake of strategic depth doctrine. We fueled a war in their country. a war that we had nothing to do with. Forced the afghanis to come over here and mix up with ourselves, deep in every part of Pakistan. We f*cked them up as well as we f*cked ourselves up Turning a blind eye to crimes against humanity while chanting look they were doing it to save our *** from soviets. Today the ghost not only haunts us but both of the countries. Pakistanis have no shame left seriously.

 

[lastofthepatriots]

Hi, What do you think why we are in this big of mess today? is it because of the tribals of FATA? No son it's because of those foreign terrorists that during the afghan war were called in by Zia from all over the world and never got back to their homes. it's because of the Those madarassahs that generated jihadis injected with extremist jihadi ideologies. Stop lying to yourself. we not only destroyed our own social fabric but also of those afghanis too, We are responsible for all those crimes committed against humanity during and after the creation of taliban. We supported mujahideens and later made them fight each other for the sake of strategic depth doctrine. We fueled a war in their country. a war that we had nothing to do with. Forced the afghanis to come over here and mix up with ourselves, deep in every part of Pakistan. Turning a blind eye to crimes against humanity while chanting look they were doing it to save our *** from soviets. Today the ghost not only haunts us but both of the countries. Pakistanis have no shame left seriously

You are getting into semantics, while I provided cold hart facts. If your mind is already made up then what is the point of debating, SON?

 

[Side-Winder]

You are getting into semantics, while I provided cold hart facts. If your mind is already made up then what is the point of debating, SON?

Hi, please don't bother writing one-liner comment. claiming to be presenting facts. When you have nothing to reply.
Thank You!

 

[Sine Nomine]

@Akheilos as I told you it's just waste of time trying to teach truth to peoples,actually we all are extrems in Pakistan from Mullahs to Liberals everyone abuses others.others. Zia only did selective part of Islamization just to gain support of Peoples,you know that Pakistanis are very sentimental in religious matters,see how Qadri gathered thousands of crowed, if got forbid he wasn't handled properly then they would have lynched NS and his kins.
1)Mullahs did clash with Govt before Zia,most notably during Anti-Ahmedi protest right from 1948 to 1974.
1953 Lahore riots - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
1974 Anti-Ahmadiyya riots - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pakistan hasn't seen such kind of chaos during or after Zia-era.
2)Gun Culture was common before zia,but guns were very costly back those times as i know my Grandfather was in possession of 2x Revolvers,1xstengun,1x.303 Bolt action Rifle.Of course with 200 rounds of ammunition these all were imported,many other peoples will be having much more then that before zia.
3)After collapse of soviet union and war in Afghanistan,guns and Ammunition came into Pakistan at very fast rate those guns in Armory of my grandfather become absolute overnight because Automatic weapons with high capacity were available at cheap rates,so every one was capable of buying them from landlords to neighbors.That started in 1991 and continued up till 2000 in that time frame my family at peak owned Around 3000 rounds and 13 guns which my father later disposed all, due to children s around.
4)After Zia everyone used Mullah's giving them power if peoples after Zia would have been sincere then they should have dumped Mullahs in first place.
5)Yes,Afghan refuges came in during his times but that was later 27 years time in which they obtained fake ID's.
"What Zia did for that he is answerable to his Allah and what we do we are answerable for that"
By that logic we are more criminals because we haven't and never tried to destroy which Zia did,one side we curse Mullahs and other side our Politicians kudos them and Media call them on TV to propagate there ideas.
6)Lal Masjid incident happened in 2006,what all Governments between 1990 and 2006 were doing,to curb that cancer.
7)These peoples have made up there mind and they will never give up until death and what is happening today we deserve that,because majority among us is that kind.we never learn and never accept truth we carry our personal egos and philosophies at national level which have never helped any nation and never will.

 

[lastofthepatriots]

Hi, please don't bother writing one-liner comment. claiming to be presenting facts. When you have nothing to reply.
Thank You!

Better go, Mourn your so called heroes

Wilco.

You don't seem to understand that If a person is given a bad choice or a worse choice, he will go for the lesser of evils. That is how life goes and that how the cards are dealt. People will hate you regardless. It seems like you are intellectually capable of understand this concept, but you prefer to hold onto a bias. If you are open to discussion, then It would be my honour sir. However, I don't want to argue with a brick wall that is immune to seeing the other side. I don't want to waste my time.

 

[Side-Winder]

Wilco.

You don't seem to understand that If a person is given a bad choice or a worse choice, he will go for the lesser of evils. That is how life goes and that how the cards are dealt. People will hate you regardless. It seems like you are intellectually capable of understand this concept, but you prefer to hold onto a bias. If you are open to discussion, then It would be my honour sir. However, I don't want to argue with a brick wall that is immune to seeing the other side. I don't want to waste my time.

Choice of bad or worse? i know what 'worse' you're talking about. Those theories of warm waters. Sir, that's one of the biggest delusions of this nation. We were fed crap. Just to collect support for afghan war. Islamization had the main role played in forming up Zia's personality. He could not understand this simple thing. that one should never take things beyond the limits. it takes no time for things to take U-TURN. As they say, Excess of everything is bad.

 

[lastofthepatriots]

Choice of bad or worse? i know what 'worse' you're talking about. Those theories of warm waters. Sir, that's one of the biggest delusions of this nation. We were fed crap. Just to collect support for afghan war. Islamization had the main role played in forming up Zia's personality. He could not understand this simple thing. that one should never take things beyond the limits. it takes no time for things to take U-TURN. As they say, Excess of everything is bad.

Forget warm waters, how would you have liked a communist satellite state on your border that is friendly with India? If you were in this position, how would you have assessed and handled the situation?


I would honestly like to know.

 

[Side-Winder]

Forget warm waters, how would you have liked a communist satellite state on your border that is friendly with India? If you were in this position, how would you have assessed and handled the situation?


I would honestly like to know.

I don't even advocate staying totally out of this conflict at all. As i said earlier there were better ways to counter soviets. Somewhat like a limited enagagement. Where you could only assist the CIA with weapons. and not man power. There was no need of being a jihadi hub. there was no need to radacalize the madrassahs. And there was no need to let the afghanis swarm in and letting them mix up from karachi to khyber. You see how smartly iran played that. They didn't let any of those afghanis mix up with their population They didn't create extremist madrassahs. they didn't radacalize the society. Thats how you play. You don't exceed the limits. you don't take things beyond the point of no return. Thats what he failed at. They had gone blind in the love of the holy war.

 

[Psychic]

Choice of bad or worse? i know what 'worse' you're talking about. Those theories of warm waters. Sir, that's one of the biggest delusions of this nation. We were fed crap. Just to collect support for afghan war. Islamization had the main role played in forming up Zia's personality. He could not understand this simple thing. that one should never take things beyond the limits. it takes no time for things to take U-TURN. As they say, Excess of everything is bad.

" In 1971, aided by USSR, India succeeded in truncating Pakistan but when it found that Pakistan refused to become its satellite, its infamous RAW recommenced its covert war to weaken other parts of Pakistan and also accelerated its force modernization program with emphasis on mechanization of ground forces and upgrading its naval and air arms with the help of USSR.

Sindh was chosen as the next target of subversion after East Pakistan. One reason of picking up Sindh was the importance of Karachi with lone seaport and economic hub of Pakistan. Its covert operations succeeded in accentuating antagonism between old and new Sindhis and thus creating urban-rural divide in Sindh. 1973 Baloch insurgency in Balochistan was supported by USSR, Afghanistan and India. When Soviet forces occupied Afghanistan in 1979 and the US and Pakistan became strategic allies to confront the Soviet threat, India's RAW joined hands with KGB and KHAD to carryout subversive activities in Pakistan. The MRD movement in rural Sindh was also supported by India. Alignment with USA from 1991 onward enabled India to spoil Pak-US relations."

Some people are like pigeons who close their eyes when they see a cat creeping towards them instead of reacting, pretending that everything is fine........

The Pakistani communists (surkhas), in early 80's used to mock the patriots by boasting that now communists are at the gates and soon Pakistan will become a part of communist empire!

When India, backed by USSR had cut Pakistan into two less than a decade earlier, after Soviet invasion of Afghanistan chances were that today's Pakistan would have been minus Baluchistan.

 

[VCheng]

We supported mujahideens and later made them fight each other for the sake of strategic depth doctrine. We fueled a war in their country. a war that we had nothing to do with. Forced the afghanis to come over here and mix up with ourselves, deep in every part of Pakistan. We f*cked them up as well as we f*cked ourselves up Turning a blind eye to crimes against humanity while chanting look they were doing it to save our *** from soviets. Today the ghost not only haunts us but both of the countries. Pakistanis have no shame left seriously.

To be fair, we should also note that, for doing all this, Pakistan received dollars by the shovelful and military hardware by the wish list in return, so may be there was a point to Gen Zia's strategy.

 

[Side-Winder]

To be fair, we should also note that, for doing all this, Pakistan received dollars by the shovelful and military hardware by the wish list in return, so may be there was a point to Gen Zia's strategy.

At the cost of........ We all know...
btw We could still play our cards well, Assisting them only with the weapons, and leaving it up to the CIA to worry about the soviet expansion. Not manipulating our own identity with the stuff...

 

[Dubious]

At the cost of........ We all know...
btw We could still play our cards well, Assisting them only with the weapons, and leaving it up to the CIA to worry about the soviet expansion. Not manipulating our own identity with the stuff...

You think CIA would agree to that and let their own die?

Of course it was also our boundary their war...So even if they didnt give shit we would have been attacked so our people...Had the CIA been soo nice to be physically involved we wouldnt have lost many of our own...Not many can understand what happened in that era except a few who actually we alive to know!

 

[Side-Winder]

" In 1971, aided by USSR, India succeeded in truncating Pakistan but when it found that Pakistan refused to become its satellite, its infamous RAW recommenced its covert war to weaken other parts of Pakistan and also accelerated its force modernization program with emphasis on mechanization of ground forces and upgrading its naval and air arms with the help of USSR.

Sindh was chosen as the next target of subversion after East Pakistan. One reason of picking up Sindh was the importance of Karachi with lone seaport and economic hub of Pakistan. Its covert operations succeeded in accentuating antagonism between old and new Sindhis and thus creating urban-rural divide in Sindh. 1973 Baloch insurgency in Balochistan was supported by USSR, Afghanistan and India. When Soviet forces occupied Afghanistan in 1979 and the US and Pakistan became strategic allies to confront the Soviet threat, India's RAW joined hands with KGB and KHAD to carryout subversive activities in Pakistan. The MRD movement in rural Sindh was also supported by India. Alignment with USA from 1991 onward enabled India to spoil Pak-US relations."

Some people are like pigeons who close their eyes when they see a cat creeping towards them instead of reacting, pretending that everything is fine........

The Pakistani communists (surkhas), in early 80's used to mock the patriots by boasting that now communists are at the gates and soon Pakistan will become a part of communist empire!

When India, backed by USSR had cut Pakistan into two less than a decade earlier, after Soviet invasion of Afghanistan chances were that today's Pakistan would have been minus Baluchistan.

So what are you telling me? Soviets were not our friends? WoW. Thanks for adding that to my knowledge.

You don't even understand what im saying -- i have repeated 100s of times that there were better ways to counter soviets. there was no need to go this far where you have no way back.

For the exaggerated myths of warm waters. Please go through this, once. Not being a stone head but With an open mind.

The War That Never Was .

 

[VCheng]

At the cost of........ We all know...
btw We could still play our cards well, Assisting them only with the weapons, and leaving it up to the CIA to worry about the soviet expansion. Not manipulating our own identity with the stuff...

We can say that only with the benefit of hindsight. Put yourself in Zia's shoes at the time of the Soviet invasion (or in Musharraf's after 9/11) and the decisions taken may not be all that wrong.