Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, Pakistan’s nuclear hero is a scion of Bhopal state’s modest and a religious family. He was born in April 1936. His father Abdul Ghafoor Khan was an academician who retired from Education Department in 1935 and settled permanently in Bhopal. In 1952, Qadeer did his Matriculation and same year in the month of August, he migrated to Pakistan. At Karachi, he did his FSC from D.J. Science College and graduated from Karachi University. He proceeded to Germany in 1961 on a scholarship for higher studies in Metallurgy. In 1963-4, he moved to Holland and did his MSC with distinction in Physical Metallurgy from Technological University Defolt. In 1968, did his Doctorate in the same subject from Catholic University of Leon. In 1972, started his career as a Metallurgist at Physical Dynamic Research Laboratory (F.D.O) at Amsterdam. This gave him an opportunity to move onwards from an ‘unknown to a known’ that later made it possible for him to go for a big hunt in Nuclear Science. Before returning home in 1976, he had worked at the British, German and Dutch Urenco uranium enrichment facility in the Netherlands in the early seventies.
During Premier Bhutto’s regime he was entrusted with the job to organize Pakistan's nuclear programme that could give an answer to India in a befitting manner. He thus sowed real seeds of Pakistan’s nuclear programme on July 31 1976, when 'Engineering Research Laboratories', an autonomous organization was formed headed by Dr. Qadeer Khan who later emerged as an architect of Pakistan’s Nuclear prowess and also called as the father of Pakistan medium-range Ghauri and other Missiles.
Needless to say that credit goes to the great Khan that "in a record short span of six years, Pakistan was put on the nuclear map of the world and a solid foundation was laid for our self-sufficiency in future of the peaceful uses of nuclear energy."
‘He became the focus of attention after India exploded three nuclear devices on May 11 and two more on May 13, 1992 to which Pakistan gave an appropriate answer by exploding five Pakistani nuclear blasts on May 28, 1998 and at least one on the following day - a move that spurred jubilation at home and condemnation abroad, coupled with sanctions.’
It may be noted that Dr. Qadeer Khan was levelled with fake charges of nuclear espionage by the West so much so that a court in Amsterdam sentenced him in absentia in 1983 for four years in jail. Dr. Qadeer refutes much biased allegations of engaging forcefully himself in any sort of nuclear espionage. The court, however, later on, withdrew it’s baseless allegation when the Khan fought his case with vigour and determination.
The great Khan, the great hero, the great architect of Pakistan’s Nuclear technology deserves special gratitude of the people of Pakistan. We salute him.
In January 1951, Ayub Khan succeeded General Sir Douglas Gracey as commander in chief of the Pakistan Army, becoming the first Pakistani in that position. Although Ayub Khan's military career was not particularly brilliant and although he had not previously held a combat command, he was promoted over several senior officers with distinguished careers. Ayub Khan probably was selected because of his reputation as an able administrator, his presumed lack of political ambition, and his lack of powerful group backing. Coming from a humble family of an obscure Pakhtun tribe, Ayub Khan also lacked affiliation with major internal power blocks and was, therefore, acceptable to all elements.
Within a short time of his promotion, however, Ayub Khan had become a powerful political figure. Perhaps more than any other Pakistani, Ayub Khan was responsible for seeking and securing military and economic assistance from the United States and for aligning Pakistan with it in international affairs. As army commander in chief and for a time as minister of defense in 1954, Ayub Khan was empowered to veto virtually any government policy that he felt was inimical to the interests of the armed forces.
By 1958 Ayub Khan and his fellow officers decided to turn out the "inefficient and rascally" politicians--a task easily accomplished without bloodshed. Ayub Khan's philosophy was indebted to the Mughal and viceregal traditions; his rule was similarly highly personalized. Ayub Khan justified his assumption of power by citing the nation's need for stability and the necessity for the army to play a central role. When internal stability broke down in the 1960s, he remained contemptuous of lawyer-politicians and handed over power to his fellow army officers.
Ayub Khan used two main approaches to governing in his first few years. He concentrated on consolidating power and intimidating the opposition. He also aimed to establish the groundwork for future stability through altering the economic, legal, and constitutional institutions.
The imposition of martial law in 1958 targeted "antisocial" practices such as abducting women and children, black marketeering, smuggling, and hoarding. Many in the Civil Service of Pakistan and Police Service of Pakistan were investigated and punished for corruption, misconduct, inefficiency, or subversive activities. Ayub Khan's message was clear: he, not the civil servants, was in control.
Sterner measures were used against the politicians. The PRODA prescribed fifteen years' exclusion from public office for those found guilty of corruption. The Elective Bodies Disqualification Order (EBDO) authorized special tribunals to try former politicians for "misconduct," an infraction not clearly defined. Prosecution could be avoided if the accused agreed not to be a candidate for any elective body for a period of seven years. About 7,000 individuals were "EBDOed." Some people, including Suhrawardy, who was arrested, fought prosecution.
The Press and Publications Ordinance was amended in 1960 to specify broad conditions under which newspapers and other publications could be commandeered or closed down. Trade organizations, unions, and student groups were closely monitored and cautioned to avoid political activity, and imams at mosques were warned against including political matters in sermons.
On the whole, however, the martial law years were not severe. The army maintained low visibility and was content to uphold the traditional social order. By early 1959, most army units had resumed their regular duties. Ayub Khan generally left administration in the hands of the civil bureaucracy, with some exceptions.
Efforts were made to popularize the regime while the opposition was muzzled. Ayub Khan maintained a high public profile, often taking trips expressly to "meet the people." He was also aware of the need to address some of the acute grievances of East Pakistan. To the extent possible, only Bengali members of the civil service were posted in the East Wing; previously, many of the officers had been from the West Wing and knew neither the region nor the language. Dhaka was designated the legislative capital of Pakistan, while the newly created Islamabad became the administrative capital. Central government bodies, such as the Planning Commission, were now instructed to hold regular sessions in Dhaka. Public investment in East Pakistan increased, although private investment remained heavily skewed in favor of West Pakistan. The Ayub Khan regime was so highly centralized, however, that, in the absence of democratic institutions, densely populated and politicized Bengal continued to feel it was being slighted.
Between 1958 and 1962, Ayub Khan used martial law to initiate a number of reforms that reduced the power of groups opposing him. One such group was the landed aristocracy. The Land Reform Commission was set up in 1958, and in 1959 the government imposed a ceiling of 200 hectares of irrigated land and 400 hectares of unirrigated land in the West Wing for a single holding. In the East Wing, the landholding ceiling was raised from thirty-three hectares to forty-eight hectares. Landholders retained their dominant positions in the social hierarchy and their political influence but heeded Ayub Khan's warnings against political assertiveness. Moreover, some 4 million hectares of land in West Pakistan, much of it in Sindh, was released for public acquisition between 1959 and 1969 and sold mainly to civil and military officers, thus creating a new class of farmers having medium-sized holdings. These farms became immensely important for future agricultural development, but the peasants benefited scarcely at all.
In 1955 a legal commission was set up to suggest reforms of the family and marriage laws. Ayub Khan examined its report and in 1961 issued the Family Laws Ordinance. Among other things, it restricted polygyny and "regulated" marriage and divorce, giving women more equal treatment under the law than they had had before. It was a humane measure supported by women's organizations in Pakistan, but the ordinance could not have been promulgated if the vehement opposition to it from the ulama and the fundamentalist Muslim groups had been allowed free expression. However, this law which was similar to the one passed on family planning, was relatively mild and did not seriously transform the patriarchal pattern of society.
Ayub Khan adopted an energetic approach toward economic development that soon bore fruit in a rising rate of economic growth. Land reform, consolidation of holdings, and stern measures against hoarding were combined with rural credit programs and work programs, higher procurement prices, augmented allocations for agriculture, and, especially, improved seeds to put the country on the road to self-sufficiency in food grains in the process described as the Green Revolution.
The Export Bonus Vouchers Scheme (1959) and tax incentives stimulated new industrial entrepreneurs and exporters. Bonus vouchers facilitated access to foreign exchange for imports of industrial machinery and raw materials. Tax concessions were offered for investment in less-developed areas. These measures had important consequences in bringing industry to Punjab and gave rise to a new class of small industrialists.
Basic Democracies
The Basic Democracies system set up five tiers of institutions. The lowest but most important tier was composed of union councils, one each for groups of villages having an approximate total population of 10,000. Each union council comprised ten directly elected members and five appointed members, all called Basic Democrats. Union councils were responsible for local agricultural and community development and for rural law and order maintenance; they were empowered to impose local taxes for local projects. These powers, however, were more than balanced at the local level by the fact that the controlling authority for the union councils was the deputy commissioner, whose high status and traditionally paternalistic attitudes often elicited obedient cooperation rather than demands.
The next tier consisted of the tehsil (subdistrict) councils, which performed coordination functions. Above them, the district (zilla) councils, chaired by the deputy commissioners, were composed of nominated official and nonofficial members, including the chairmen of union councils. The district councils were assigned both compulsory and optional functions pertaining to education, sanitation, local culture, and social welfare. Above them, the divisional advisory councils coordinated the activities with representatives of government departments. The highest tier consisted of one development advisory council for each province, chaired by the governor and appointed by the president. The urban areas had a similar arrangement, under which the smaller union councils were grouped together into municipal committees to perform similar duties. In 1960 the elected members of the union councils voted to confirm Ayub Khan's presidency, and under the 1962 constitution they formed an electoral college to elect the president, the National Assembly, and the provincial assemblies.
The system of Basic Democracies did not have time to take root or to fulfill Ayub Khan's intentions before he and the system fell in 1969. Whether or not a new class of political leaders equipped with some administrative experience could have emerged to replace those trained in British constitutional law was never discovered. And the system did not provide for the mobilization of the rural population around institutions of national integration. Its emphasis was on economic development and social welfare alone. The authority of the civil service was augmented in the Basic Democracies, and the power of the landlords and the big industrialists in the West Wing went unchallenged.
The 1962 Constitution
The 1962 constitution retained some aspects of the Islamic nature of the republic but omitted the word Islamic in its original version; amid protests, Ayub Khan added that word later. The president would be a Muslim, and the Advisory Council of Islamic Ideology and the Islamic Research Institute were established to assist the government in reconciling all legislation with the tenets of the Quran and the sunna. Their functions were advisory and their members appointed by the president, so the ulama had no real power base.
Ayub Khan sought to retain certain aspects of his dominant authority in the 1962 constitution, which ended the period of martial law. The document created a presidential system in which the traditional powers of the chief executive were augmented by control of the legislature, the power to issue ordinances, the right of appeal to referendum, protection from impeachment, control over the budget, and special emergency powers, which included the power to suspend civil rights. As the 1965 elections showed, the presidential system of government was opposed by those who equated constitutional government with parliamentary democracy. The 1962 constitution relaxed martial law limitations on personal freedom and made fundamental rights justiciable. The courts continued their traditional function of protecting the rights of individual citizens against encroachment by the government, but the government made it clear that the exercise of claims based on fundamental rights would not be permitted to nullify its previous progressive legislation on land reforms and family laws.
The National Assembly, consisting of 156 members (including six women) and elected by an electoral college of 80,000 Basic Democrats, was established as the federal legislature. Legislative powers were divided between the National Assembly and provincial legislative assemblies. The National Assembly was to hold sessions alternatively in Islamabad and Dhaka; the Supreme Court would also hold sessions in Dhaka. The ban on political parties was operational at the time of the first elections to the National Assembly and provincial legislative assemblies in January 1960, as was the prohibition on "EBDOed" politicians. Many of those elected were new and merged into factions formed on the basis of personal or provincial loyalties. Despite the ban, political parties functioned outside the legislative bodies as vehicles of criticism and formers of opinion. In late 1962, political parties were again legalized and factions crystallized into government and opposition groups. Ayub Khan combined fragments of the old Muslim League and created the Pakistan Muslim League (PML) as the official government party.
The presidential election of January 1965 resulted in a victory for Ayub Khan but also demonstrated the appeal of the opposition. Four political parties joined to form the Combined Opposition Parties (COP). These parties were the Council Muslim League, strongest in Punjab and Karachi; the Awami League, strongest in East Pakistan; the National Awami Party, strongest in the North-West Frontier Province, where it stood for dissolving the One Unit Plan; and the Jamaat-i-Islami, surprisingly supporting the candidacy of a woman. The COP nominated Fatima Jinnah (sister of the Quaid-i-Azam and known as Madar-i-Millet, the Mother of the Nation) their presidential candidate. The nine-point program put forward by the COP emphasized the restoration of parliamentary democracy. Ayub Khan won 63.3 percent of the electoral college vote. His majority was larger in West Pakistan (73.6 percent) than in East Pakistan (53.1 percent).
Ayub Khan's Foreign Policy and the 1965 War with India
Other than ideology and Kashmir, the main source of friction between Pakistan and India was the distribution of the waters of the Indus River system. As the upper riparian power, India controlled the headworks of the prepartition irrigation canals. After independence India had, in addition, constructed several multipurpose projects on the eastern tributaries of the Indus. Pakistan feared that India might repeat a 1948 incident that curtailed the water supply as a means of coercion. A compromise that appeared to meet the needs of both countries was reached during the 1950s; it was not until 1960 that a solution finally found favor with Ayub Khan and Jawaharlal Nehru.
The Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 was backed by the World Bank and the United States. Broadly speaking, the agreement allocated use of the three western Indus rivers (the Indus itself and its tributaries, the Jhelum and the Chenab) to Pakistan, and the three eastern Indus tributaries (the Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej) to India. The basis of the plan was that irrigation canals in Pakistan that had been supplied by the eastern rivers would begin to draw water from the western Indus rivers through a system of barrages and link canals. The agreement also detailed transitional arrangements, new irrigation and hydroelectric power works, and the waterlogging and salinity problems in Pakistan's Punjab. The Indus Basin Development Fund was established and financed by the World Bank, the major contributors to the Aid-to-Pakistan Consortium, and India.
Pakistan's tentative approaches to China intensified in 1959 when China's occupation of Tibet and the flight of the Dalai Lama to India ended five years of Chinese-Indian friendship. An entente between Pakistan and China evolved in inverse ratio to Sino-Indian hostility, which climaxed in a border war in 1962. This informal alliance became a keystone of Pakistan's foreign policy and grew to include a border agreement in March 1963, highway construction connecting the two countries at the Karakoram Pass, agreements on trade, and Chinese economic assistance and grants of military equipment, which was later thought to have included exchanges in nuclear technology. China's diplomatic support and transfer of military equipment was important to Pakistan during the 1965 Indo-Pakistani War over Kashmir. China's new diplomatic influence in the UN was also exerted on Pakistan's behalf after the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. Ayub Khan's foreign minister, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, is often credited for this China policy, which gave Pakistan new flexibility in its international relationships. The entente deepened during the Zia regime (1977-88).
The Soviet Union strongly disapproved of Pakistan's alliance with the United States, but Moscow was interested in keeping doors open to both Pakistan and India. Ayub Khan was able to secure Soviet neutrality during the 1965 Indo-Pakistani War.
Ayub Khan was the architect of Pakistan's policy of close alignment with the United States, and his first major foreign policy act was to sign bilateral economic and military agreements with the United States in 1959. Nevertheless, Ayub Khan expected more from these agreements than the United States was willing to offer and thus remained critical of the role the United States played in South Asia. He was vehemently opposed to simultaneous United States support, direct or indirect, for India's military, especially when this assistance was augmented in the wake of the Sino-Indian War of 1962. Ayub Khan maintained, as did many Pakistanis, that in return for the use of Pakistani military facilities, the United States owed Pakistan security allegiance in all cases, not merely in response to communist aggression. Especially troublesome to Pakistan was United States neutrality during the 1965 Indo-Pakistani War. The United States stance at this time was a contributing factor to Pakistan's closing of United States communications and intelligence facilities near Peshawar. Pakistan did not extend the ten-year agreement signed in 1959.
The 1965 war began as a series of border flare-ups along undemarcated territory at the Rann of Kutch in the southeast in April and soon after along the cease-fire line in Kashmir. The Rann of Kutch conflict was resolved by mutual consent and British sponsorship and arbitration, but the Kashmir conflict proved more dangerous and widespread. In the early spring of 1965, UN observers and India reported increased activity by infiltrators from Pakistan into Indian-held Kashmir. Pakistan hoped to support an uprising by Kashmiris against India. No such uprising took place, and by August India had retaken Pakistani-held positions in the north while Pakistan attacked in the Chamb sector in southwestern Kashmir in September. Each country had limited objectives, and neither was economically capable of sustaining a long war because military supplies were cut to both countries by the United States and Britain.
On September 23, a cease-fire was arranged through the UN Security Council. In January 1966, Ayub Khan and India's prime minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri, signed the Tashkent Declaration, which formally ended hostilities and called for a mutual withdrawal of forces. This objectively statesmanlike act elicited an adverse reaction in West Pakistan. Students as well as politicians demonstrated in urban areas, and many were arrested. The Tashkent Declaration was the turning point in the political fortunes of the Ayub Khan administration.
In February 1966, a national conference was held in Lahore, where all the opposition parties convened to discuss their differences and their common interests. The central issue discussed was the Tashkent Declaration, which most of the assembled politicians characterized as Ayub Khan's unnecessary capitulation to India. More significant, perhaps, was the noticeable underrepresentation of politicians from the East Wing. About 700 persons attended the conference, but only twenty-one were from the East Wing. They were led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (known as Mujib) of the Awami League, who presented his controversial six-point political and economic program for East Pakistani provincial autonomy. The six points consisted of the following demands that the government be federal and parliamentary in nature, its members elected by universal adult suffrage with legislative representation on the basis of distribution of population; that the federal government have principal responsibility for foreign affairs and defense only; that each wing have its own currency and separate fiscal accounts; that taxation occur at the provincial level, with a federal government funded by constitutionally guaranteed grants; that each federal unit control its own earnings of foreign exchange; and that each unit raise its own militia or paramilitary forces.
Ayub Khan's also lost the services of Minister of Foreign Affairs Bhutto, who resigned became a vocal opposition leader, and founded the Pakistan People's Party (PPP). By 1968 it was obvious that except for the military and the civil service, Ayub Khan had lost most of his support. Ayub Khan's illness in February 1968 and the alleged corruption of members of his family further weakened his position. In West Pakistan, Bhutto's PPP called for a "revolution"; in the east, the Awami League's six points became the rallying cry of the opposition.
In October 1968, the government sponsored a celebration called the Decade of Development. Instead of reminding people of the achievements of the Ayub Khan regime, the festivities highlighted the frustrations of the urban poor afflicted by inflation and the costs of the 1965 war. For the masses, Ayub Khan had become the symbol of inequality. Bhutto capitalized on this and challenged Ayub Khan at the ballot box. In East Pakistan, dissatisfaction with the system went deeper than opposition to Ayub Khan. In January 1969, several opposition parties formed the Democratic Action Committee with the declared aim of restoring democracy through a mass movement.
Ayub Khan reacted by alternating conciliation and repression. Disorder spread. The army moved into Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Dhaka, and Khulna to restore order. In rural areas of East Pakistan, a curfew was ineffective; local officials sensed government control ebbing and began retreating from the incipient peasant revolt. In February Ayub Khan released political prisoners, invited the Democratic Action Committee and others to meet him in Rawalpindi, promised a new constitution, and said he would not stand for reelection in 1970. Still in poor health and lacking the confidence of his generals, Ayub Khan sought a political settlement as violence continued.
On March 25, 1969, martial law was again proclaimed; General Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan, the army commander in chief, was designated chief martial law administrator (CMLA). The 1962 constitution was abrogated, Ayub Khan announced his resignation, and Yahya Khan assumed the presidency. Yahya Khan soon promised elections on the basis of adult franchise to the National Assembly, which would draw up a new constitution. He also entered into discussions with leaders of political parties.
Ayub Years
Ayub ruled Pakistan almost absolutely for more than ten years, and his regime made some notable achievements, although it did not eliminate the basic problems of Pakistani society. A land reforms commission appointed by Ayub distributed some 900,000 hectares (2.2 million acres) of land among 150,000 tenants. The reforms, however, did not erase feudal relationships in the countryside; about 6,000 landlords still retained an area three times larger than that given to the 150,000 tenants. During Ayub's regime developmental funds to East Pakistan increased more than threefold. This had a noticeable effect on the economy of the eastern part, but the disparity between the two sectors of Pakistan was not eliminated. Perhaps the most pervasive of Ayub's changes was his system of Basic Democracies. It created 80,000 basic democrats, or union councillors, who were leaders of rural or urban areas around the country. They constituted the electoral college for presidential elections and for elections to the national and provincial legislatures created under the constitution promulgated by Ayub in 1962. The Basic Democratic System had four tiers of government from the national to the local level. Each tier was assigned certain responsibilities in administering the rural and urban areas, such as maintenance of primary schools, public roads, and bridges. Ayub also promulgated an Islamic marriage and family laws ordinance in 1961, imposing restrictions on polygamy and divorce, and reinforcing the inheritance rights of women and minors. For a long time Ayub maintained cordial relations with the United States, stimulating substantial economic and military aid to Pakistan. This relationship, however, deteriorated in 1965, when another war with India over Kashmir broke out. The United States then suspended military and economic aid to both countries, thus denying Pakistan badly needed weapons.The USSR then intervened to mediate the conflict, inviting Ayub and Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri of India to Toshkent. By the terms of the so-called Tashkent Agreement of January 1966, the two countries withdrew their forces to pre-war positions and restored diplomatic, economic, and trade relations. Exchange programmes were initiated, and the flow of capital goods to Pakistan increased greatly. The Tashkent Agreement and the Kashmir war, however, generated frustration among the people of Pakistan and resentment against President Ayub. Foreign British Rule and Muslim League The British ruled the Indian subcontinent for nearly 200 years-from 1756 to 1947. After the Indian Mutiny of 1857, the British government abolished the powers of the British East India Company, which had ruled the sub-continent on behalf of the British Crown, and took on direct powers of governance. Political reforms were initiated, allowing the formation of political parties. The Indian National Congress, representing the overwhelming majority of Hindus, was created in 1885. The Muslim League was formed in 1906 to represent and protect the position of the Muslim minority.
When the British introduced constitutional reforms in 1909, the Muslims demanded and acquired separate electoral rolls. This guaranteed Muslims representation in the provincia l as well as national legislatures until the dawn of independence in 1947.The idea of a separate Muslim state in south Asia was raised in 1930 by the poet and philosopher Sir Muhammad Iqbal. He suggested that the north-western provinces of British India and the native state of Jammu and Kashmir should be joined into such a state. The name "Pakistan", which came to be used to describe this grouping, is thought to have originated as a compound abbreviation made up of letters of the names of the provinces involved, as follows: Punjab, Afghania (North West Frontier Province), Kashmir, Indus-Sindh, and Balochistan. An alternative explanation says the name means "Land of the Pure". By the end of the 1930s, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, leader of the Muslim League and considered the founding father of Pakistan, had also decided that the only way to preserve Indian Muslims from Hindu domination was to establish a separate Muslim state.
Creation of Pakistan In 1940 the Muslim League formally endorsed the partitioning of British India and the creation of Pakistan as a separate Muslim state. During pre-independence talks in 1946, therefore, the British government found that the stand of the Muslim League on separation and that of the Congress on the territorial unity of India were irreconcilable. The British then decided on partition and on August 15, 1947, transferred power dividedly to India and Pakistan. The latter, however, came into existence in two parts: West Pakistan, as Pakistan stands today, and East Pakistan, now known as Bangladesh. The two were separated by 1,600 km (1,000 mi) of Indian territory. Problems of Partition The division of the subcontinent caused tremendous dislocations of populations. Some 6 million Hindus and Sikhs moved from Pakistan into India, and about 8 million Muslims migrated from India to Pakistan. The demographic shift was accompanied by considerable inter-ethnic violence, including massacres, that reinforced bitterness between the two countries. This bitterness was further intensified by disputes over the accession of the former native states of India to either country. Nearly all of these 562 widely scattered polities had joined either India or Pakistan; the princes of Hyderabad, Junagadh, and Kashmir, however, had chosen to join neither country.
On August 15, 1947, these three states became technically independent, but when the Muslim ruler of Junagadh, with its predominantly Hindu population, joined Pakistan a month later, India annexed his territory. Hyderabad's Muslim prince, ruling over a mostly Hindu population, tried to postpone any decision indefinitely, but in September 1948 India also settled that issue by pre-emptive annexation. The Hindu ruler of Jammu and Kashmir, whose subjects were 85 per cent Muslim, decided to join India. Pakistan, however, questioned his right to do so, and a war broke out between India and Pakistan. Although the UN subsequently resolved that a plebiscite be held under UN auspices to determine the future of Kashmir, India continued to occupy about two thirds of the state and refused to hold a plebiscite. This deadlock, which still persists, has intensified suspicion and antagonism between the two countries. Pre-Republican Era The first independent government of Pakistan was headed by Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan. Muhammad Ali Jinnah was Governor-General until his death in 1948.
From 1947 to 1951 the country functioned under unstable conditions. The government endeavoured to create a new national capital to replace Karachi, organize the bureaucracy and the armed forces, resettle refugees, and contend with provincial politicians who often defied its authority. Failing to offer any programme of economic and social reform, however, it did not capture the popular imagination. In his foreign policy Liaquat established friendly relations with the United States, when he visited President Harry S. Truman in 1950. Liaquat's United States visit injected bitterness into Pakistan's relations with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) because Liaquat had previously accepted an invitation from Moscow that never materialized in a visit. The United States gave no substantial aid to Pakistan until threeyears later, but the USSR, Pakistan's close neighbour, had been alienated. After Liaquat was assassinated in 1951, Khwaja Nazimuddin, an East Pakistani who had been Governor-General since Jinnah's death, became Prime Minister. Unable to prevent the erosion of the Muslim League's popularity in East Pakistan, however, he was forced to yield to another East Pakistani, Muhammad Ali Bogra, in 1953. When the Muslim League was routed in East Pakistani elections in 1954, the Governor-General dissolved the constituent assembly as no longer representative. The new assembly that met in 1955 was no longer dominated by the Muslim League. Muhammad Ali Bogra was then replaced by Chaudhuri Muhammad Ali, a West Pakistani. At the same time, Iskander Mirza became the Governor-General of the country.The new constituent assembly enacted a bill, which became effective in October 1955, integrating the four West Pakistani provinces into one political and administrative unit. The assembly also produced a new constitution, which was adopted on March 2, 1956.
It declared Pakistan an Islamic republic. Mirza was elected Provisional President. Cabinet Shifts The new constitution notwithstanding, political instability continued because no stable majority party emerged in the National Assembly. Prime Ministe r Ali remained in office only until September 1956, when he was succeeded by Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, leader of the Awami League of East Pakistan. His tenure lasted for slightly more than a year. When President Mirza discovered that Suhrawardy was planning an alliance between East and West Pakistani political forces by supporting the presidential aspirations of Firoz Khan Noon, leader of the Republican Party, he forced the prime minister to resign. The succeeding coalition government, headed by Ismail Ibrahim Chundrigar, lasted only two months before it was replaced by a Republican Party Cabinet under Noon. President Mirza, however, found that his influence among the Republicans was diminishing and that the new prime minister had come to an understanding with Suhrawardy. Against such a coalition Mirza had no chance of being re-elected president. He proclaimed martial law on October 7, 1958, dismissed Noon's government, and dissolved the national assembly. The president was supported by General Muhammad Ayub Khan, Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, who was named chief martial-law administrator. Twenty days later Ayub forced the president to resign and assumed the presidency himself. Ayub Years Ayub ruled Pakistan almost absolutely for more than ten years, and his regime made some notable achievements, although it did not eliminate the basic problems of Pakistani society.
A land reforms commission appointed by Ayub distributed some 900,000 hectares (2.2 million acres) of land among 150,000 tenants. The reforms, however, did not erase feudal relationships in the countryside; about 6,000 landlords still retained an area three times larger than that given to the 150,000 tenants. During Ayub's regime developmental funds to East Pakistan increased more than threefold. This had a noticeable effect on the economy of the eastern part, but the disparity between the two sectors of Pakistan was not eliminated. Perhaps the most pervasive of Ayub's changes was his system of Basic Democracies. It created 80,000 basic democrats, or union councillors, who were leaders of rural or urban areas around the country. They constituted the electoral college for presidential elections and for elections to the national and provincial legislatures created under the constitution promulgated by Ayub in 1962. The Basic Democratic System had four tiers of government from the national to the local level. Each tier was assigned certain responsibilities in administering the rural and urban areas, such as maintenance of primary schools, public roads, and bridges. Ayub also promulgated an Islamic marriage and family laws ordinance in 1961, imposing restrictions on polygamy and divorce, and reinforcing the inheritance rights of women and minors.
For a long time Ayub maintained cordial relations with the United States, stimulating substantial economic and military aid to Pakistan. This relationship, however, deteriorated in 1965, when another war with India over Kashmir broke out. The United States then suspended military and economic aid to both countries, thus denying Pakistan badly needed weapons. The USSR then intervened to mediate the conflict, inviting Ayub and Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri of India to Toshkent. By the terms of the so-called Tashkent Agreement of January 1966, the two countries withdrew their forces to pre-war positions and restored diplomatic, economic, and trade relations. Exchange programmes were initiated, and the flow of capital goods to Pakistan increased greatly. The Tashkent Agreement and the Kashmir war, however, generated frustration among the people of Pakistan and resentment against President Ayub.
Foreign Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto resigned his position and agitated against Ayub's dictatorship and the "loss" of Kashmir. In March 1969 Ayub resigned. Instead of transferring power to the speaker of the National Assembly, as the constitution dictated, he handed it over to the commander-in-chief of the army, General Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan. Yahya became President and declared martial law.
Zia-ul-Haq
General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (August 12, 1924–August 17, 1988) ruled Pakistan from 1977 to 1988. His rule over the country, which lasted eleven years, is the longest to date in the history of Pakistan. Appointed Chief of Army Staff in 1976, General Zia-ul-Haq came to power after he overthrew ruling Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, after widespread civil disorder, in a bloodless military coup d'état on July 5, 1977 and imposed Martial Law. He assumed the post of President of Pakistan in 1978 which he held till his death on August 17, 1988.
His reign witnessed the enforcement of strict Islamic law within the country, the political stabilization of secession-threatening Balochistan following his setting-up of a separate military regime within the province, the passing of the controversial 8th Amendment into constitutional law, as well as the gradual privatization and subsequent rejuvenation of a previously declining economy.
He also fought a war by proxy in Afghanistan, aiding the Mujahidin against the superpower Soviet Union, in the Soviet-Afghan War. Following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and the end of Détente, he was instrumental in providing United States-backed military aid to the Afghan resistance against Soviet occupation and then later diverting them to the Kashmir cause in the late 1980s. His major contributions to the Mujahideen greatly aided them in inducing a complete Soviet withdrawal by 1988.
Introduction
General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (August 12, 1924–August 17, 1988) ruled Pakistan from 1977 to 1988. His rule over the country, which lasted eleven years, is the longest to date in the history of Pakistan. Appointed Chief of Army Staff in 1976, General Zia-ul-Haq came to power after he overthrew ruling Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, after widespread civil disorder, in a bloodless military coup d'état on July 5, 1977 and imposed Martial Law. He assumed the post of President of Pakistan in 1978 which he held till his death on August 17, 1988.
His reign witnessed the enforcement of strict Islamic law within the country, the political stabilization of secession-threatening Balochistan following his setting-up of a separate military regime within the province, the passing of the controversial 8th Amendment into constitutional law, as well as the gradual privatization and subsequent rejuvenation of a previously declining economy.
He also fought a war by proxy in Afghanistan, aiding the Mujahidin against the superpower Soviet Union, in the Soviet-Afghan War. Following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and the end of Détente, he was instrumental in providing United States-backed military aid to the Afghan resistance against Soviet occupation and then later diverting them to the Kashmir cause in the late 1980s. His major contributions to the Mujahideen greatly aided them in inducing a complete Soviet withdrawal by 1988.
History and Background
Having become President in 1978, he secured his position as head of state through a referendum in 1984 which successfully ensured his rule as President for another five years. He lifted Martial Law and held partyless elections in 1985, and handpicked Muhammad Khan Junejo to be the Prime Minister of Pakistan. He dismissed Junejo's government in May 1988 on several charges. He was assassinated in a planned aircraft crash on August 17, 1988 under mysterious circumstances, and the perpetrators of the highly sophisticated air sabotage have not been proven. His death ended his unprecedentedly long eleven-year military dictatorship over Pakistan.
General Zia-ul-Haq's Islamization
On December 2, 1978, on the occasion of the first day of the Hijra calendar to enforce the Islamic system in Pakistan in a nationwide address, General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq accused politicians of exploiting the name of Islam saying: "Many a ruler did what they pleased in the name of Islam."
After assuming power, the task that the government set to was its public commitment to enforce Nizam-e-Islam (Islamic System), a 180 degree turn from Pakistan's predominantly Anglo-Saxon Law. As a preliminary measure to establish an Islamic society in Pakistan, General Zia announced the establishment of Shariah Benches.
Under Offenses Against Property (Enforcement of Hudood Ordinance 1979), the punishment of imprisonment or fine, or both, as provided in the existing Pakistan Penal Code for theft, was substituted by the amputation of the right hand of the offender from the joint of the wrist by a surgeon. For robbery, the right hand of the offender from the wrist and his left foot from the ankle should be amputated by a surgeon. Hudood ( Arabic حدود, also transliterated Hadud, Hudud; plural for Hadh,, limit, or restriction) is the word often used in Islamic social and legal literature for the bounds of acceptable behaviour.
In legal terms, (Islamic law being usually referred to as Sharia, the term is used to describe laws that define a level of crime classification. Crimes classified under Hudud are the most severe of crimes, such as murder, theft, and adultery. There are minor differences in views between the four major Sunni madhhabs about sentencing and specifications for these laws. It is often argued that, since Sharia is God's law and states certain punishments for each crime, they are immutable. However, with liberal movements in Islam expressing concerns about hadith validity, a major component of how Islamic law is created, questions have arisen about administering certain punishments. Incompatibilities with human rights in the way Islamic law is practised in many countries has led many to call for an international moratorium on the punishments of Hudud laws until greater scholarly consensus can be reached. It has also been argued by some, that the Hudud portion of Sharia is incompatible with humanism or human rights.
Drinking of wine (i.e. all alcoholic drinks) was not a crime at all under the Pakistan Penal Code. In 1977, however, the drinking and selling of wine by Muslims was banned in Pakistan and the sentence of imprisonment of six months or a fine of Rs. 5000/-, or both, was provided in that law.
Under the Zina Ordinance, the provisions relating to adultery were replaced as that the women and the man guilty will be flogged, each of them, with one hundred lashes, if unmarried. And if they are married they shall be stoned to death.
The Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and the Criminal Procedure Code were amended, through ordinances in 1980, 1982 and 1986 to declare anything implying disrespect to Muhammad, Ahle Bait (family of the Prophet Muhammad), Sahaba (companions of the Prophet Muhammad) and Sha'ar-i-Islam (Islamic symbols), a cognizable offence, punishable with imprisonment or fine, or with both.
Legacy
General Zia-ul-Haq's most enduring legacy was his fighting the Soviet-Afghan War by proxy, in an alliance with the Afghan resistance, the Mujahideen, against the invading USSR. His open accepting of financial aid from the United States of America to fight the Soviet Union helped in ending an already struggling Détente. He was then instrumental in providing military aid to Mujahideen fighting in Afghanistan against Soviet occupation and then later diverting them to the Kashmir cause in the late 1980s. His major contributions to the resistance movement greatly aided in complete Soviet withdrawal by 1988, which perhaps stopped a direct military invasion of Pakistan.
Another enduring legacy of his is the political system he left behind. After the partyless elections of February 1985, the Pakistan Constitution of 1973 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.
Zia's era also marked the most stable period for Pakistan's largest province, Balochistan, in the history of the country. This was mostly due to his appointing General Rahimuddin Khan as Martial Law Governor of Balochistan. Rahimuddin's efficient and iron-fisted rule completely subdued the militancy, and also prevented an influx of drugs and weaponry in the Balochistan from Afghanistan. Calls for secession, which were in excess during the rule of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, were brought under control, and civil disobedience was also put down by indirect military action under the authoritarian Rahimuddin.
His reign also witnessed the rise to prominence of several conservative politicians who would later rule the country, including Nawaz Sharif, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, and Zafarullah Khan Jamali (all of whom would later hold the post of Prime Minister of Pakistan). General Zia also revived and endorsed Pakistan's current ruling political party, Pakistan Muslim League. By 2002, the party broke into several splinter factions, the majority of which became structurally united again in 2003 under Pakistan Muslim League (Q), including Pakistan Muslim League (Z), which was named after Zia.
General Zia also militarized the bureaucracy systematically. By his government's orders, 5 % of all new posts in the higher civil civil service were to be filled by army officers who, consequently, occupied important civilian positions. Successive democratically elected governments did not rescind this order due to the power wielded by Pakistan Army. Under Pakistan's current military government, militarizing the bureaucracy is again pursued.
Zia's rule witnessed heightened tensions with neighbouring states. He was instrumental in providing military assistance to Mujahideen fighting in Afghanistan against Soviet Occupation and then later diverting them to the Kashmir cause in the late 1980s. During his time as President, Zia was also accused several times by Indian premier Indira Gandhi (and later Rajiv Gandhi) of training Sikh insurgents and sending them to destabilize India. The completion of the construction of the Karakoram Highway from Pakistan to China, the highest paved international road in the world, took place during his rule in 1978.
General Zia-ul-Haq's Islamization policy also proved to be extremely influential, and has continued to affect the political and sectarian situation in Pakistan till the present day. The nation's liberal elements claim that the late general's policy gave rise to previously unknown sectarianism and religious fanaticism within the country, citing, among others, the 1979-installed Hudood Ordinance. Pakistan's more conservative forces state that General Zia's Islamizing policies restored a sense of dignity and religious integrity back to the country. Although later governments under Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif set up commissions investigating the laws, they did not follow through on proposed amendments. The current government under Pervez Musharraf is also investigating the laws, despite opposition from the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, a coalition of religious political parties in Pakistan.
Early Years
Zia (more appropriate Arabic transliteration: Dhia) (an Arain) was born in Jalandhar (in India) in 1924 as the second child of a school teacher named Muhammad Akbar. He completed his initial education in Simla and then at St. Stephen's College, Delhi. He was commissioned in the British Army in 1943 and served during World War II. At Pakistan's independence, Zia joined the Pakistani Army as a major. He got 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, as well as leading the training mission into battle during the Black September in Jordan operations. 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.
Reign as Chief Martial Law Administrator
The Doctrine of Necessity
Nusrat Bhutto, the wife of the deposed Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, filed a suit against General Zia's military regime, challenging the validity of the July 1977 military coup. The Supreme Court of Pakistan ruled, in what would later be known as the Doctrine of Necessity, that, given the dangerously unstable political situation of the time, General Zia's overthrowing of the Bhutto government was legal on the grounds of necessity. The judgment tightened the general's hold on the government
Assumption of the Post of President of Pakistan
.Despite the dismissal of most of the Bhutto government, the President of Pakistan, Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry, was persuaded to continue in office. After completing his term, and despite General Zia's insistence to accept an extension as President, Mr Chaudhry resigned, and General Zia also assumed the office of President of Pakistan on September 16, 1978. As acting Chief Martial Law Administrator and President of Pakistan, General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq cemented his position as the undisputed ruler of the country.
The Hanging of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
On April 4, 1979, the former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged, after the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence as passed by the Lahore High Court. The High Court had given him the death sentence on charges of the murder of the father of Ahmed Raza Kasuri, a dissident PPP politician. Despite many clemency appeals from foreign leaders requesting Zia to commute Bhutto's death sentence, Zia dismissed the appeals as "trade union activity" and upheld the death sentence.
In Power
Military Coup
As Bhutto's autocratic government became increasingly violent with its detractors and opponents, its popularity greatly fell. Eventually, Bhutto's ruling Pakistan People's Party faced a bloody deadlock with the opposing Pakistan National Alliance. On July 5, 1977, Chief of Army Staff General Zia-ul-Haq led a bloodless coup against Bhutto's government. The military coup, named Operation Fairplay, was successful, and Zia enforced Martial Law, effectively putting an end to the deteriorating law-and-order situation. Shortly after, Zia promised to hold elections in October and restore power to civilian representatives. He thus became the third person in the history of Pakistan to impose Martial Law.Postponement of Elections and Call for Accountability
After assuming power as Chief Martial Law Administrator, General Zia promised to hold National and Provincial Assembly elections in the next 90 days and to hand over power to the representatives of the nation. He also stated that the constitution had not been abrogated whatsoever, but had been temporarily suspended. However, in October 1977, he announced the postponement of the electoral plan and decided to start an accountability process of the politicians. Zia 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 (a large number of both PNA and PPP members had asked General Zia to postpone the elections). Thus the "retribution first, elections later," PNA policy was adopted. A Disqualification Tribunal was formed and several individuals who were once Members of Parliament were charged with malpractice and disqualified from participating in politics at any level for the next seven years. A White Paper document was issued, incriminating the deposed Bhutto government on several counts.
Stabilization of BalochistanDeclaration of an Amnesty
On assuming power, General Zia inherited armed secessionist uprisings in Pakistan's largest province, Balochistan, from the Bhutto era. Tribal unrest and feudal clashes were moving the province towards a precarious position. The general acted quicky, offering a general amnesty to those who gave up arms and moving for the appeasement of the tribals. When this had little effect on the prevailing situation there, Zia withdrew troops from the province, ending much of the civil disobedience movements. Appointment of Rahimuddin Khan as Martial Law Governor
Zia then appointed General Rahimuddin Khan, whose previously distinguished career made him stand out among his peers, to the post of Martial Law Governor of Balochistan (and later Governor of Sindh). General Rahimuddin then embarked on a provincial policy that completely isolated feudal families from the government. His authoritarian rule crushed any remaining civil unrest within Balochistan.
This garnered controversy over Zia's appointing of the dictatorial Rahimuddin, as the latter would go on to concentrate power solely with the provincial military regime and mostly act independently of the central government. The controversy eventually dissipated after the impressive progress Balochistan went through during Rahimuddin's lengthy rule (1978-1984), which was to remain characterized by the isolation of feudal families from provincial policy.
Reign as President of Pakistan
Formation of Majlis-e-Shoora
In the absence of a Parliament, General Zia decided to set up an alternative system. He introduced Majlis-e-Shoora in 1980. Most of the members of the Shoora were intellectuals, scholars, ulema, journalists, economists and professionals belonging to different fields of life. The Shoora was to act as a board of advisors to the President. The idea of establishing this institution was not bad, but the main problem was that all 284 members of the Shoora were to be nominated by the President and thus there was no room for opposition Referendum of 1984
General Zia eventually decided to hold elections in the country. But before handing over the power to the public representatives, he decided to secure his position as the head of state. 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 Sharia law enforced in the country. According to the official result, more than 95% of the votes were cast in favor of Zia-ul-Haq, thus he was elected as President for the next five years. However, they were marred by allegations of widespread irregularities and techinical violations of the laws and ethics of democratic elections.
The Eighth Amendment and Elections of 1985
Under Zia, the previous ruler Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's nationalization policies were slowly reversed, and gradual privatization took place. General Zia greatly favored egalitarianism and industrialization. His reign saw, between 1980 and 1988, the increase of industrial production by nine percent, as well as an annual growth in Gross Domestic Product by six percent, among the highest in the world.
Consolidation of Pakistan's Nuclear Programme
President Zia sought and substantially contributed to the attaining of nuclear capability for Pakistan. Accordingly, the country was made a subject of attack on platforms of international organizations for not signing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Zia deftly neutralized international pressure by tagging Pakistan's nuclear programme to the nuclear designs of neighbouring India. The President then drew a five-point proposal as a practical rejoinder to world pressure on Pakistan to sign the NPT, the points including the renouncing of the use of nuclear weapons. Despite this, he also openly funded a uranium-enrichment plant based in Kahuta under Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan of Nowshera Cantt..
Involvement in the Soviet-Afghan War
The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan
On December 25, 1979, the Soviet Union, a superpower at the time, invaded Afghanistan. General Zia, as President of neighboring Pakistan, was asked by several cabinet members to not interfere in the war, owing to the military power of the USSR at the time. The Islamist General Zia, however, was ideologically opposed to Communism taking over a neighboring country, and made no secret about his intentions of monetarily and militarily aiding the Afghan resistance, or Mujahideen.
International Standing Enhancement and Resumption of Aid President Zia's international standing greatly rose after his declaration to fight the Soviet invaders, as he went from being portrayed as just another military dictator to a champion of the free world by the Western media. Indeed, Pakistan-United States relations, which had hit a low-point after the burning down of a Pakistan-based US Embassy by fundamentalists in 1979, took a much more positive turn. U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his Secretary of State, Cyrus Vance, cut off U.S. aid to Pakistan on the grounds that Pakistan had not made sufficient progress on the nuclear issue. Then, on December 27, 1979, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, and Carter offered Pakistan $325 million in aid over three years. Zia rejected this as "peanuts." Carter also signed the finding in 1980 that allowed less than $50 million a year to go to the Mujahideen. After Ronald Reagan came to office, defeating Carter for the US Presidency in 1980, all this changed. Aid to the Afghan resistance, and to Pakistan, increased substantially. The United States, faced with a rival superpower looking as if it were to create another Communist bloc, now engaged Zia to fight a US-aided war by proxy in Afghanistan against the Soviets.
Fighting the War by Proxy President Zia now found himself in a position to demand billions of dollars in aid for the Mujahideen from the Western states, famously dismissing a United States proposed 325 million dollar aid package as "peanuts". Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and Special Service Group now became actively involved in the conflict, and in cooperation with the CIA and the United States Army Special Forces supported the armed struggle against the Soviets.
After succeeding Jimmy Carter in 1980, Ronald Reagan became the new President of the United States of America. Reagan was completely against the Soviet Union and its Communist satellites, dubbing it "the Evil Empire". Reagan now increased financial aid heading for Pakistan. Then, in 1981, the Reagan Administration sent the first of forty F-16 jet fighters to the Pakistanis. But the Soviets kept control of the Afghan skies until the Mujahideen received Stinger missiles in 1986. From that moment on, the Mujahideen's strategic position steadily improved.
Accordingly, the Soviets declared a policy of national reconciliation. In January they announced that a Soviet withdrawal was no longer linked to the makeup of the Afghan government remaining behind. Pakistan, therefore, played a large part in the eventual withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan in 1988.
Current Status
Dismissal of the Junejo Government and Call for Fresh Elections
As time passed, the Parliamentarians wanted to have more freedom and power. By the beginning of 1988, rumors about the differences between Prime Minister Junejo and President Zia were rife. On May 29, 1988, President Zia dissolved the National Assembly and removed the Prime Minister under article 58(2) b of the amended Constitution. Apart from many other reasons, Junejo's decision to sign the Geneva Accord against the wishes of General Zia, and his open declarations of removing any military personnel found responsible for an explosion at a munitions dump at Ojhri earlier in the year, proved to be some of the major factors responsible for his removal.
After eleven years, General Zia-ul-Haq once again promised the nation that he would hold fresh elections within the next ninety days. The late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's daughter Benazir Bhutto had returned from exile earlier in 1986, and had announced contesting the elections. With Benazir's popularity growing, and a decrease in international aid following the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, Zia was trapped in a difficult political situation.
Death
The August 17th Air-Crash
As he was grappling with these problems, however, General Zia-ul-Haq died in a plane crash on August 17, 1988. After witnessing a tank inspection in Bahawalpur, Zia had left the small town in Punjab province by C-130 Hercules aircraft. Shortly after a smooth take-off, the control tower lost contact with the aircraft. Witnesses who saw the plane in the air afterwards claim it was flying erratically. Directly afterwards, the aircraft nosedived before exploding in mid-air, killing General Zia and several other senior army generals, as well as American Ambassador to Pakistan Arnold Raphael.
Funeral
General Zia's funeral was held on 19 August in Islamabad, the country's capital. A large number of Pakistanis attended the funeral to pay their last respects to the late general, as well as many foreign dignitaries. Also in attendance was his successor as President of Pakistan, Ghulam Ishaq Khan, who had earlier officially announced Zia's death via national address. His remains were housed in a small tomb outside the King Faisal Mosque.
Controversial Reasons Behind the Crash
The tragic air-crash was, politically and militarily, the worst in Pakistan's history and unprecedented in military aircraft. His death is still a contentious 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 hypothesis. Recently, John Gunther Dean, a former US ambassador to India, blamed the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, for orchestrating the assassination of Zia-ul-Haq, though he offered no proof for his allegation, made to the World Policy Journal. General Hamid Gul, who would become the Director-General of the ISI after General Zia's death, stated that the US Central Intelligence Agency was behind the plane crash. Some theories have gone on to say that it was an act in coordination with the Soviet KGB and the American CIA. The perpetrators, however, have not been proven as yet. Some people believe that ISI itself was behind the crash.
It is situated at a distance of 10 km from Naran at an altitude of 3500 m. It provides an excellent view of the 5290 m high Malika Parbat (Queen of the Mountains). The lake and its surroundings have a touch of unreal about them and are breathtakingly lovely. There is a charming legend about a prince called Saiful Muluk who fell in love with a fairy of the lake. The lake is named after the prince. The best way to reach the lake is to walk but you may also take a pony or a jeep.
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The city of Abbottabad is not only the capital but also the historical and natural crown of the Hazara Division. It is 4,120 feet above the sea level. It was founded in 1853 and named after Major James Abbot, the first Deputy Commissioner (March 1849-April 1853) of Hazara. J.A Donaid was the last Deputy Commissioner (September 27, 1905). The area of Abbottabad City is around 800 acres. It has the central position in Hazara with Mansehra in its north, Rawalpindi in the south, Muzaffarabad in the east and Haripur on the West.
The British maintained a sizeable military presence here, evidenced even today by the Pakistan Military Academy (PMA), which has remained as the major training academy for military officers. The PMA provided fame to Abbottabad for many years, prior to the recent development of the city, from a non-industrial backward area, to a busy modern business, economic and academic centre.
From a tourist point of view abbottabad is noted for its verdant parks, gardens, golf course and pine covered hills, apart from this it is full of educational institutions and Academies. Its importance lies in the fact that it serves as an important gateway to almost all-beautiful places in Pakistan. The formidable Karakorams & the enchanting Himalayas can be approached from Abbottabad.
Abbottabad has a natural beauty endowed by its location amid surrounding mountains and high altitude. It is neither too cold in winter, nor too hot in summer and enjoys a refreshing spring season. Gradually it has become one of the most sought after summer resorts of Pakistan.
Thandiani – meaning cool place, situated only 24Km from Abbottabad. An ideal spot for a half-day excursion. The road is surfaced in good condition and is open most of the year. The road twists and turns climbing steeply to the top (2400m) you can take a number of steep walks through the mature pine forest.
