Promoted to Chief whilst being 5th in line, setting the negative trend. Carrying out the demise of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, creating ways for judicial murder. Single-handedly aggravating the sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shias. Zia Ul Haq, will forever be remembered as the root of all evil and incompetence within the history of Pakistan and its religious thought.
Coming into power in 1979, declaring Pakistan as a dictatorship, Zia Ul Haq’s predecessors spoke ill of the man, Bhutto too calling him his ‘monkey general’, whereby when only a Colonel, his presiding Brigadier wrote specifically in his file, “an ill man with ill intentions and not to be promoted”, yet we see Zia becoming the head of the nation he was then.
Limited in thought and in vision, as all Pakistani Armed Forces men are, Zia was the spark and blast between sectarian violence, rooted in American investments, that have kept Pakistan a divided nation on religion and in growth. Declaring prayer breaks, Friday as an off day, introduction of Sharia Courts, punishments similar to those of Ancient Arabia, were all minor implementations of Zia’s thoughts.
Zia was an integral American tool against the Soviet expansionism in Afghanistan. Charlie Wilson, the then American Governor, supported Zia, although in his book himself stating “I did not like the man”, providing him first with $51.7 Billion funding to fight against the Soviets. Zia utilized those funds and bought American arms, an old Western business trick that dictates capitalism. Soviet choppers were brought down by American RPG’s by the hands of the Afghans. Zia and his agency invested heavily into these Afghani Mujahideen and thus led to the creation of Al-Qaeda and Taliban. Zia himself used those funds to then create the Pakistani Taliban off-shoot, and the Sipah Sahaba.
When Zia’s role became prominent, and he became reliable to the Western motives, his hands became firm on the grip of power. Now, Zia would implement his personal philosophies onto Pakistan.
Zia introduced his Islamization, the core of Pakistan’s defeat, and went on to introduce Sharia Law as dominant with extreme practices. Women news broadcasters were no longer allowed to present the news without a Burqa or Veil. Men and Women who were unmarried, if seen in public would be sent to jail, and in some cases were stoned for committing offence of Zina. The Maulvi populace grew in this regime, overtaking land in expensive neighborhoods and creating Madrassas and Mosques, where most children were ill-trained, and prepared for crimes of obscene nature.
Suicide bombings were the creation of Zia’s thought, although the first suicide bomb was carried out in the 1600s by Ottoman Commanders, Zia brought this philosophy and introduced this fear and crime into Pakistan. The Sipah Sahaba became prominent with a powerful dollar currency backing, and the head of state being their proponent.
Zia shut down the red light district, Heeramandi, thus causing their business which was constrained to one location, to spread into neighborhoods among the common populace, spreading ill virtues in the population, and spreading the business of prostitution in hiding.
However, Heeramandi was one Zia’s most favorable tools in his time. Even though the business was shut, the residents remained.
A license is to be issued whenever a Muharram procession is to be carried out. These licenses are awarded by the District Commissioners of those localities. The oldest licenses are still valid and the processions are carried out. Zia was an anti-Shia man, yet, the highest number of licenses issued were done so in his time. To many this may seem like a positive role, however Zia issued these licenses only to Heeramandi, a total of 32 licenses, so that the narrative that all Shi’a’s belonged to lesser beings would be promoted, and they would naturally lose importance within Pakistan.
The Sipah Sahaba carried out harsher acts. Sunni’s and Shi’a’s had no grudge amongst one another, when in actuality all Muslims joined in on times of Eid, Ramadan, and Muharram together. Sunni’s used to help their Shi’a brethren in preparing for their annual processions. The hatred was almost non-existent. Zia’s Sipah Sahaba, printed pamphlets of anti Sunni and anti Shia slurs and distributed it amongst the people of either sect, blaming the other for the publications. Dogs with religious names hanged on their collars were left open in the cities during processions, since there was never any other enemy before, the Shi’a’s blamed the Sunni’s and vice versa. Then, the riots began.
Zia’s Islamisation had succeeded in dividing Pakistan into the bloody violence that carries on even today under the name of religion. Suicide bombings is still the pet narrative used by the intelligence agencies in a form of creating worry and facades. American dollars are still donated to purchase American arms. The scenarios are repetitive, and almost identical even today. The money Bhutto had raised and kept for creating infrastructure, was used by Zia to birth the MQM political party to fight Peoples Party of Pakistan, another descendance of Zia’s actions. Some give Zia the credit for his nuclear arsenal, when all the plans and policies were set by Bhutto in actuality. Zia did not feel the need for nuclear weapons, until India had tested their arsenal before ours. These facts reflect the quote, “those who do not read history, are bound to repeat it”.
Pakistan remains stuck in 1979, with sectarian violence, and an aggravated Taliban mentality. Terrorists trained and raised by the Pakistan Army, using suicide attacks to set narratives. Whilst the world moves forward into exploration of space and more, Pakistan remains inactive in the global stage. The reasons for that are as simple as before, we do not read history and do not teach history the way it should be taught. Zia was later assassinated in a bombing conspiracy of his plane crash. An American Ambassador, along with six generals, and five brigadiers died along Zia ul Haq in that plane crash. Some historians claim a bomb was placed within the crates of mangoes that were stored in the rear end of the plane. To this day all we know, Zia’s burial was his uniform, whilst his ashes were mixed with the debris of both his plane, and the country of Pakistan.
Michael Denning – Political Analyst at AGC
