Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (12 August 1924 – 17 August 1988) was a Pakistani general who ruled Pakistan from his coup in 1977 until his death in an airplane crash in 1988. He served as the chief martial law administrator from 1977 to 1985, and as the president of Pakistan from 1978 until his death. Zia was also the chief of the army staff of the Pakistan Army from 1976. He remains Pakistan's longest-serving de-facto ruler to date, and his political ideology is known as Ziaism. Educated at Delhi University, Zia saw action in World War II as a British Indian Army officer in Burma and Malaya, before opting for Pakistan in 1947 and fighting as a tank commander in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965. In 1970, he led a military training mission to Jordan, proving instrumental to defeating the Black September insurgency against King Hussein. Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto appointed Zia Chief of Army Staff in 1976. Following civil disorder after the controversial 1977 general election, Zia deposed Bhutto in a military coup and declared martial law on 5 July 1977. Bhutto was controversially tried by the Supreme Court and executed less than two years later, for authorising the murder of a political opponent. Assuming the presidency in 1978, Zia played a major role in the Soviet-Afghan War. Backed by the United States and Saudi Arabia, Zia coordinated the Afghan mujahideen against the Soviet occupation throughout the 1980s. This culminated in the Soviet Union's withdrawal in 1989, but also led to the proliferation of millions of refugees, with heroin and weaponry into Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province. Zia also bolstered ties with China and the United States, and emphasised Pakistan's role in the Islamic world, while relations with India worsened amid the Siachen conflict and accusations that Pakistan was aiding the Khalistan movement. Domestically, Zia passed broad-ranging legislation as part of Pakistan's Islamization, curbed civil liberties, and heightened press censorship. He also escalated Pakistan's atomic bomb project, and instituted industrialisation and deregulation, helping Pakistan's economy become the fastest-growing in South Asia. Averaged over Zia's rule, GDP growth was the highest in the country's history. After lifting martial law and holding non-partisan elections in 1985, Zia appointed Muhammad Khan Junejo Prime Minister but accumulated more presidential powers via the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution. After Junejo signed the Geneva Accords in 1988 against Zia's wishes, and called for an inquiry into the Ojhri Camp disaster, Zia dismissed Junejo's government and announced fresh elections in November 1988. He was killed along with several of his top military officials and two American diplomats in a mysterious plane crash near Bahawalpur on 17 August 1988. Zia remains a polarising figure in Pakistan's history, credited for preventing wider Soviet incursions into the region and introducing an era of economic prosperity, but decried for weakening democratic institutions and passing laws encouraging religious intolerance. He is also cited for promoting the early political career of Nawaz Sharif, who would be elected Prime Minister three times.
== Early life and education == Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq was born on 12 August 1924 in Jullundur, Punjab into a family belonging to the Arain tribe of Punjabis. His father, Muhammad Akbar Ali, worked in the Army General Headquarters in Delhi. Ali was noted for his religiousness which earned him the Muslim clerical title of maulvi. At an early age, Zia and his six siblings were taught the Qur'an. After completing his initial education in Shimla, Zia attended Delhi's prestigious St. Stephen's College, an Anglican missionary school, for his bachelor's degree in history, from which he graduated with distinction in 1943. He was admitted to the Indian Military Academy at Dehradun, graduating in May 1945 among the last group of officers to be commissioned before the independence of India.
Military service
=== Early career and partition === Zia was commissioned into the British Indian Army on 12 May 1943 after graduating from the Mhow Officer Training School. He was posted to the 13th Lancers, a cavalry unit equipped with tanks. During the Second World War, Zia participated in the Burma campaign of the Pacific War against the Imperial Japanese Army. Zia also participated in Indonesian National Revolution and the Battle of Surabaya. Following the Partition of India in 1947, Zia was the escort officer for the last train of refugees to leave Babina, an armoured corps training centre in Uttar Pradesh, a difficult journey that took seven days, during which the passengers were under constant fire due to communal violence which broke out in the aftermath of the Partition. After the partition, Zia joined the Pakistan Army, In September 1950, he joined the Guides Cavalry. He was trained in the United States from 1962–1964 at the United States Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. After that, he returned to take over as Directing Staff at Command and Staff College, Quetta. During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, Zia is said to have been the Assistant Quartermaster of the 101st Infantry Brigade.. In 1969 he raised the 9th Armoured Brigade in Kharian as the first Brigade Commander of the unit; the brigade is currently stationed in Gujranwala under the 6th Armoured Division. As a young soldier, Zia preferred prayers when "drinking, gambling, dancing and music were the way officers spent their free time."
=== Role in Black September === Zia was stationed in Jordan from 1967 to 1970 as the head of a Pakistani training mission to Jordan. He later became involved as an advisor for the Jordanians during the Black September against the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). Zia had been stationed in Amman for three years prior to Black September. During the events, according to CIA official Jack O'Connell, Zia was dispatched by Hussein north to assess Syria's military capabilities. The Pakistani commander reported back to Hussein, recommending the deployment of a Royal Jordanian Air Force squadron to the region. According to Pakistani journalist Raja Anwar, the mission may have been a violation of Zia's original assignment in Jordan by the Pakistani military, even though it helped Jordan repel the Syrian offensive. Hussein came to view Zia favourably, and later convinced Pakistani president Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to appoint him as Chief of Army Staff. O'Connell also said that Zia personally led Jordanian troops during the battles.
=== Ascent to Chief of Army Staff === He was then promoted as lieutenant general and was appointed commander of the II Corps at Multan in 1975. On 1 March 1976, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto approved then-three star rank general Lieutenant General Zia to Chief of Army Staff and to be elevated to four-star rank. At the time of his nomination as the successor to the outgoing chief of army staff, General Tikka Khan, the lieutenant generals in order of seniority were: Muhammad Shariff, Akbar Khan, Aftab Ahmed, Azmat Baksh Awan, Ibrahim Akram, Abdul Majeed Malik, Ghulam Jilani Khan, and Zia himself. Bhutto chose the most junior, superseding seven more senior lieutenant-generals. However, the senior most at that time, Lieutenant General Mohammad Shariff, though promoted to General, was made the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. Pakistani academic Husain Haqqani argues that Bhutto chose Zia ahead of many senior officers for ethnic and caste reasons, thinking that an Arain would not make an alliance with the predominantly Pashtun and Rajput military officers in order to overthrow him, and this is also the reason why he let Zia push for more Islam in the armed forces. Thus, Bhutto let him change the army's motto to Iman, Taqwa, Jihad fi sabilillah and let him offer books of Abul A'la Maududi, an Islamic scholar and critic of Bhutto, to his officers as prizes during various competitions, despite the strong ideological antagonism between Bhutto and Zia.
Military coup
=== Pre-coup unrest === Bhutto began facing considerable criticism and increasing unpopularity as his term progressed; the alliance of socialists in Pakistan who had previously allied with Bhutto began to diminish as time progressed. Bhutto also targeted opposition leader Abdul Wali Khan and his party the National Awami Party (NAP). Despite the socialistic ideological similarity of the two parties, the clash of egos between the two men became increasingly fierce, starting with the Bhutto government's decision to oust the NAP provincial government in Balochistan for alleged secessionist activities and subsequent banning of the NAP with the arrest of much of its leadership after the death of a close lieutenant of Bhutto's, Hayat Sherpao, in a bomb blast in the frontier town of Peshawar. Dissidence also increased within Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), and the murder of leading dissident Ahmed Raza Kasuri's father led to public outrage and intra-party hostility because Bhutto was accused of masterminding the crime. PPP leaders such as Ghulam Mustafa Khar openly condemned Bhutto and called for protests against his regime. The political crisis in the North-West Frontier Province and Balochistan intensified as civil liberties remained suspended, and an estimated 100,000 troops deployed in the two provinces were accused of abusing human rights and killing large numbers of civilians. On 8 January 1977, a large number of opposition political parties grouped to form the Pakistan National Alliance (PNA). Bhutto called fresh elections, and the PNA participated fully to ouster Bhutto. The PNA managed to contest the elections jointly even though there were grave splits on opinions and views within the alliance. The PNA faced defeat but did not accept the results, alleging that the election was rigged. On 11 March 1977, the alliance called a nationwide strike followed by vicious demonstrations demanding fresh elections. Around 200 people were killed in the encounters between protestors and security forces. They proceeded to boycott the provincial elections. Despite this, there was a high voter turnout in the national elections; however, as provincial elections were held amidst low voter turnout and an opposition boycott, the PNA viewed Bhutto's government as illegitimate. Soon, all the opposition leaders called for the overthrow of Bhutto's regime. Political and civil disorder intensified, which led to more unrest. On 21 April 1977, Bhutto imposed martial law in the major cities of Karachi, Lahore and Hyderabad. However, a compromise agreement between Bhutto and opposition was ultimately reported. Zia planned the coup d'état carefully as he knew Bhutto had integral intelligence in the Pakistan Armed Forces, and many officers, including chief of air staff Air Marshal Zulfiqar Ali Khan, Major General Tajammul Hussain Malik, and Major General Naseerullah Babar
Execution of coup d'etat
The coup (codenamed Operation Fair Play) transpired in the early hours of 5 July 1977. Before the announcement of any agreement, Bhutto and members of his cabinet were arrested by troops of the military police under the order of Zia. Bhutto tried to call Zia but all telephone lines were disconnected. When Zia spoke to him later, he reportedly told Bhutto that he was sorry that he had been forced to perform such an "unpleasant task". Zia and his military government portrayed the coup as a "spontaneous response to a difficult situation", but his response was a complete contradiction. Soon after the coup, Zia told the British journalist Edward Behr of Newsweek:
I [Zia] am the only man who took this decision [Fair Play] and I did so on 1700 Hrs on 4[th] July after hearing the press statement which indicated that the talks between Mr. Bhutto and the opposition had broken down. Had an agreement been reached between them, I would certainly never had done what I did. However, Zia's vice chief of the army staff, General Khalid Mahmud Arif, contradicted Zia's statement when Arif noted that the coup had already been planned, and the senior leadership of the armed forces had solid information. Therefore, Arif met with Bhutto on an emergency basis, stressing and urging Bhutto to "rush negotiations with the opposition". By Arif's account, the talks had not broken down even though the coup was very much in the offing. Zia further argued that the operation against Bhutto had been necessitated by the prospect of a civil war that Bhutto had been planning by distributing weapons to his supporters. However, Arif strongly rejected Zia's remarks on Bhutto, and citing no evidence that weapons were found or recovered at any of the party's election offices, the military junta did not prosecute Bhutto on the charge of planning civil war. After deposing Prime Minister Bhutto on 5 July 1977, Zia declared martial law, and appointed himself Chief Martial Law Administrator, which he remained until declaring himself president on 16 September 1978. Immediately, the chief of naval staff, Admiral Mohammad Shariff, announced his and the navy's strong support for Zia's military government. But the chief of air staff, Air Marshal Zulfikar Ali Khan, remained unsupportive. General Muhammad Shariff remained neutral, while he silently expressed his support to Prime Minister Zulfikar Bhutto. In 1978, Zia pressured President Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry to appoint Air Marshal Anwar Shamim as Chief of Air Staff; and Admiral Karamat Rahman Niazi as Chief of Naval Staff in 1979. On Zia's recommendation, President Illahi appointed Admiral Mohammad Shariff as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, hence making the Admiral the highest-ranking officer and principal military adviser overlooking all of the inter-services, including the Chiefs of Staff of the respected forces. In 1979, the Chiefs of Army, Navy, and the Air Force, including the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff validated the coup as constitutional and legal under the war-torn circumstances, pledging their support to Zia as well.
Dictatorship (1977-1988)
=== Postponement of elections === After assuming power as Chief Martial Law Administrator, Zia shortly appeared on national television, promising to hold neutral parliamentary elections within the next 90 days
My sole aim is to organise free and fair elections which would be held in October this year. Soon after the polls, power will be transferred to the elected representatives of the people. I give a solemn assurance that I will not deviate from this schedule.
He also stated that the Constitution had not been abrogated, but temporarily suspended. Zia did not trust the civilian institutions and legislators to ensure the country's governance; therefore, in October 1977, he announced the postponement of the electoral plan and decided to start an accountability process for politicians. On television, Zia strongly defended his decision for postponing the elections and demanded the "scrutiny of political leaders who had engaged in malpractice in the past". Thus, the PNA adopted its policy of "retribution first, elections later". Zia's policy severely tainted his credibility as many saw the broken promise as malicious. Another motive was that Zia widely suspected that once out of power, the size of PPP allies would swell and result in better electoral performances. This led to request for postponement of elections by right-wing Islamists as well as left-wing socialists, formerly allied with Bhutto, who displaced Bhutto in the first place. Zia dispatched an intelligence unit, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)'s Political Wing, dispatching Brigadier General Taffazul Hussain Siddiqiui to Bhutto's native province, Sindh, to assess whether people would accept martial law. The Political Wing also contacted the several Islamists and conservatives, promising an election, with the PNA power-sharing the government with Zia. The military government successfully divided and separated secular political forces from right-wing Islamists and conservatives, and later purged each member of the secular front. A disqualification tribunal was formed, and several individuals who had been 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. It is reported by senior officers that when Zia met federal secretaries for the first time as leader of the country after martial law, he said that "He does not possess the charisma of Bhutto, personality of Ayub Khan or the legitimacy of Liaquat Ali Khan" thereby implying how can he be marketed.
Supreme Court support for Zia's dictatorship
Nusrat Bhutto, the wife of the deposed prime minister, filed a suit against Zia's government, challenging the validity of his military coup. The Supreme Court ruled, in what would later be known as the doctrine of necessity, that Zia's overthrow of the Bhutto government was legal on the grounds of necessity. The judgement tightened Zia's hold on the government.
=== Trial of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto === Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was arrested during the coup but released shortly afterwards. Upon his release, Bhutto travelled the country amid large crowds of PPP supporters. On 3 September 1977, he was arrested again by the army on charges of authorising the murder of a political opponent in March 1974. The trial proceedings began 24 October 1977 and lasted five months. On 18 March 1978, Bhutto was declared guilty of murder and was sentenced to death. According to academics Aftab Kazie and Roedad Khan, Zia hated Bhutto and had used inappropriate language and insults to describe him and his colleagues. The Supreme Court ruled four-to-three in favour of execution. The Lahore High Court gave 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 and upheld the death sentence. On 4 April 1979, Bhutto was hanged, after the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence as passed by the Lahore High Court. The hanging of an elected prime minister by a military dictator was condemned by the international community and by lawyers and jurists across Pakistan. Bhutto's trial was highly controversial. In 2024, in response to a 2011 reference filed by Bhutto's son-in-law and former president of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan's Supreme Court ruled that Bhutto was not subject to a fair trial.
Appointment of martial law administrators
==== Martial law judges ==== The appointments of senior justices to the Supreme Court was one of the earliest and major steps that were taken out by the military government under Zia-ul-Haq. After calling for martial law, Zia pressured President Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry to appoint Justice Sheikh Anwarul Haq to chief justice on 23 September 1977. Immediately, Chief Justice Yaqub Ali was forcefully removed from the office after the latter agreed to re-hear the petition filed at the Supreme Court by Nusrat Bhutto on 20 September 1977. After Justice Yaqub Ali's removal, Bhutto objected to the inclusion of the new chief justice, Sheikh Anwar-ul-Haq, as a chief justice of the bench on the grounds that by accepting the office of acting president during the absence of Zia from the country, he had compromised his impartial status. Bhutto also stated that the Chief Justice in his public statements had been critical of his government in the recent past. The objection was over-ruled by the Chief Justice Anwar-ul-Haq, and the case of Bhutto was again heard by the Chief Justice Haq as the bench's lead judge, and presided the whole case of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto while forcing the martial law throughout Pakistan. Shortly, after Zia's return, another judge, Mushtak Ahmad, also gained Zia and Anwar-ul-Haq's support and elevated as the Chief Justice of Lahore High Court; he was too part of the bench who retained the death sentence of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto even though Bhutto was not declared guilty of the murder of the political opponent. In 1979, when Zia departed for Saudi Arabia, Justice Anwar-ul-Haq served as interim president of Pakistan.
Martial law governors
The Zia regime largely made use of installing high-profile military generals to carte blanche provincial administration under martial law. Zia's Guides Cavalry comrade Lieutenant General Fazle Haq was appointed martial law administrator of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. General Haq was considered a strong vocal general and a strong man in support of Zia's regime. General Haq was the commander of the XI Corps. The second appointment was of Lieutenant General S.M. Abbasi, who was appointed martial law administrator of Sindh; his tenure saw civil disorder amid student riots. The third martial law administrator appointment was of Lieutenant General Ghulam Jilani Khan to Punjab. The ascent of Nawaz Sharif to Chief Minister of Punjab was largely due to General Jilani's sponsorship. The fourth martial law administrator appointment was of Lieutenant General Rahimuddin Khan to Balochistan. As martial law administrator, Khan cracked down on the Baloch insurgency and constructed nuclear test sites in Chagai district. Zia benefited from the capable martial law administrators who previously had worked with the military governments of former president Yahya Khan and Ayub Khan in the 1960s. In 1979, Zia influenced the Pakistan Navy's Promotion Board several times after he succeeded first in the appointment of Admiral Karamat Rahman Niazi as chief of naval staff in 1979, and Admiral Tarik Kamal Khan, also as chief of naval staff, in 1983. On his request, then-President Fazal Illahi approved the appointment of General Anwar Shamim as Chief of Air Staff and following President's resignation, Zia appointed Shamim as the Deputy Chief Martial Law Administrator. In the matters of serious national security, General Zia had taken the chief of air staff and chief of naval staff in confidence after he discussed the matters with the respected chiefs of Staff. Zia's appointment in inter-services were highly crucial for his military government and served as a preemptive measure to ensure the continuous loyalty of the navy and air force to himself and his regime.
=== Assumption of Presidency (1978-1988) === After the dismissal of most of the Bhutto government, President Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry decided to resign from his post, due to contentious relations with the military After completing his term Chaudhry resigned and Zia declared himself president on 16 September 1978. Zia would continue to hold on to the position of president until his death in the plane crash that killed him in 1988.
Domestic policy
Formation of Majlis-e-Shoora
Although ostensibly only holding office until free elections could be held, General Zia, like the previous military governments, disapproved of the lack of discipline and orderliness that often accompanies multiparty "parliamentary democracy." He preferred a "presidential" form of government and a system of decision making by technical experts, or "technocracy". His first replacement for the parliament was a Majlis-e-Shura, or "consultative council." After banning all political parties in 1979 he disbanded parliament and at the end of 1981 set up the Majlis, which was to act as a board of advisors to the president and assist with governance. The 350 members of the Shura were to be nominated by the President and possessed only the power to consult with him, and in reality served only to endorse decisions already taken by the government. Most members of the Shoora were intellectuals, scholars, ulema, journalists, economists, and professionals in different fields. Zia's parliament and military government reflected the idea of "military-bureaucratic technocracy" (MBT) where professionals, engineers, and high-profile military officers were initially part of his military government. His antipathy for the politicians led the promotion of bureaucratic-technocracy which was seen a strong weapon of countering the politicians and their political strongholds. Senior statesman and technocrats were included physicist-turned diplomat Agha Shahi, jurist Sharifuddin Perzada, corporate leader Nawaz Sharif, economist Mahbub ul Haq, senior statesmen Aftab Kazi and Roedad Khan, and chemist-turned diplomat Ghulam Ishaq Khan, were a few of the leading technocratic figures in his military government.
==== 1984 referendum ==== After Bhutto's execution, momentum to hold elections began to mount both internationally and within Pakistan. But before handing over power to elected representatives, Zia-ul-Haq attempted to secure his position as the head of state. A referendum was held on 19 December 1984 with the option being to elect or reject the General as the future President, the wording of the referendum making a vote against Zia appear to be a vote against Islam. According to official figures 97.8% of votes were cast in favour of Zia, however only 20% of the electorate participated in the referendum.
1985 parliamentary elections and constitutional amendments
After holding the 1984 referendum, Zia succumbed to international pressure and gave permission to election commission to hold national wide general elections but without political parties in February 1985. Most of the major opposing political parties decided to boycott the elections but election results showed that many victors belonged to one party or the other. Critics complained that ethnic and sectarian mobilisation filled the void left by banning political parties (or making elections "non-partisan"), to the detriment of national integration. The General worked to give himself the power to dismiss the Prime Minister dissolve the National Assembly, appoint provincial governors and the chief of the armed forces. His prime minister Muhammad Khan Junejo was known as an unassuming and soft-spoken Sindhi. Before handing over the power to the new government and lifting the martial law, Zia got the new legislature to retroactively accept all of Zia's actions of the past eight years, including his coup of 1977. He also managed to get several amendments passed, most notably the Eighth Amendment, which granted "reserve powers" to the president to dissolve the Parliament. However, this amendment considerably reduced the power he'd previously granted himself to dissolve the legislature, at least on paper. The text of the amendment permitted Zia to dissolve the Parliament only if the government had been toppled by a vote of no confidence and it was obvious that no one could form a government or the government could not function in a constitutional manner.
Islamisation of Pakistan
The primary policy of Zia's government was "Shariaisation" or "Islamisation". In 1977, before the coup, the drinking and selling of wine by Muslims, along with nightclubs, and horse racing was banned by Prime Minister Bhutto to stem the tide of street Islamisation. Zia went much further, committing himself to enforce Nizam-e-Mustafa ("Rule of the Prophet" or an Islamic System, i.e. establishing an Islamic state and sharia law), a significant turn from Pakistan's predominantly secular law, inherited from the British. In his first televised speech to the country as head of state Zia declared that:
Pakistan which was created in the name of Islam will continue to survive only if it sticks to Islam. That is why I consider the introduction of [an] Islamic system as an essential prerequisite for the country. In the past, he complained, "Many a ruler did what they pleased in the name of Islam." Zia established "Sharia Benches" in each high court (later the Federal Sharia Court) to judge legal cases using the teachings of the Quran and the Sunna, and to align Pakistan's legal statutes with Islamic doctrine. Zia bolstered the influence of the ulema and the Islamic parties. Thousands of activists from the Jamaat-e-Islami party were appointed to government posts to ensure the maintenance of his Islamist agenda. Conservative ulema were added to a Council of Islamic Ideology. Islamisation was a sharp change from Bhutto's original philosophical rationale captured in the slogan, "Food, clothing, and shelter". In Zia's view, socialist economics and a secular-socialist orientation served only to upset Pakistan's natural order and weaken its moral fibre. Zia defended his policies in an interview in 1979 given to British journalist Ian Stephens:
The basis of Pakistan was Islam. ... Muslims of the subcontinent are a separate culture. It was on the Two-Nation Theory that this part was carved out of the Subcontinent as Pakistan... Mr. Bhutto's way of flourishing in this Society was by eroding its moral fiber. ... by pitching students against teachers, children against their parents, landlord against tenants, workers against mill owners. [Pakistan has economic difficulties] because Pakistanis have been made to believe that one can earn without working. ... We are going back to Islam not by choice but by the force of circumstances. It is not I or my government that is imposing Islam. It was what 99 percent of people wanted; the street violence against Bhutto reflected the people's desire ... Secular and leftist activists and politicians in Pakistan accused Zia of manipulating Islam for political ends. According to Nusrat Bhutto, former First Lady of Pakistan:
The ... horrors of 1971 war ... are (still) alive and vivid in the hearts and the minds of people of [Pakistan]...Therefore, General Zia insanely ... used Islam ... to ensure the survival of his regime.... The Zakat and Ushr Ordinance was implemented in 1980. The measure called for a 2.5% annual deduction from personal bank accounts on the first day of Ramadan, with the revenue to be used for poverty relief. Zakat committees were established to oversee the distribution of the funds. The measure was opposed by Shia Muslims, who do not consider the collection of Zakat an obligation. In the first days of the tax, Shia Muslims who followed the Ja'fari school raised strong opposition, and in April 1981, the government made an exemption allowing Shia to file for exemptions. Among Sunni Muslims, Deobandis, and Barelvis also had disputes. Zia favoured the Deobandi doctrine, which led to Barelvis joining the anti-Zia Movement for the Restoration of Democracy. Pakistani Canadian Sufi scholar Syed Soharwardy states that Zia "changed Pakistan from a Sufi-dominated state to a Salafi-dominated state", estimating that if 70% of mosques were Sufis due to Zia they were reduced, and in the army, this change has been even more radical, as he estimates that military mosques went from 90% Sufi in the 70s to 85% Deobandi under Zia.
===== Islamic Law ===== Under Zia, the order for women to cover their heads while in public was implemented in public schools, colleges, and state television. Women's participation in sports and the performing arts was severely restricted. Following Sharia law, women's legal testimony was given half the weight of a man's. In 1981, interest payments were replaced by profit and loss sharing accounts; however, profit and loss sharing was simply viewed as another name for the practice of interest . Textbooks were overhauled to remove un-Islamic material, and un-Islamic books were removed from libraries. Eating and drinking during Ramadan were outlawed, and attempts were made to enforce praying of salah five times a day.
Hudood Ordinance
One of his first and most controversial measures to Islamise Pakistani society was the replacement of parts of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) with the 1979 Hudood Ordinance. The Ordinance added new criminal offences of adultery and fornication to Pakistani law, and new punishments of whipping, amputation, and stoning to death. For theft or robbery, the PPC punishments of imprisonment fine, or both, were replaced by amputation of the right hand of the offender for theft, and amputation of the right hand and left foot for robbery. For Zina (extramarital sex), the provisions relating to adultery were replaced by the Ordinance with punishments of 100 lashes for those unmarried offenders, and stoning to death for married offenders. All these punishments were dependent on the proof required for hadd being met. In practice, the Hudd requirement—four Muslim men of good repute testifying as witnesses to the crime—was seldom met. As of 2014, no offenders have been stoned or had limbs amputated by the Pakistani judicial system. To be found guilty of theft, Zina, or drinking alcohol by less strict tazir standards—where the punishment was flogging and/or imprisonment—was common, and there have been many floggings. More worrisome for human rights and women's rights advocates, lawyers, and politicians was the incarceration of thousands of rape victims on charges of Zina. The onus of providing proof in a rape case rests with the woman herself. Uncorroborated testimony by women was inadmissible in hudood crimes. If the victim/accuser was unable to prove her allegation, bringing the case to court was considered equivalent to a confession of sexual intercourse outside of lawful marriage. Despite this, the ordinance remained in force until the Women's Protection Bill was passed in 2006. Although Sharia punishments were imposed, the due process, witnesses, law of evidence, and prosecution system remained inherited from British-era penal codes. The hybridisation of Pakistan's penal code with Islamic laws was difficult because of the difference in the underlying logic of the two legal systems.
===== Blasphemy ordinances ===== To outlaw blasphemy, the PPP and the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) were amended through ordinances in 1980, 1982, and 1986. The 1980 law prohibited derogatory remarks against Islamic personages and carried a three-year prison sentence. In 1982 the small Ahmadiyya religious minority were prohibited from saying or implying they were Muslims. In 1986, stating or doing anything that implied disrespect to the Islamic prophet Muhammad, Ahl al-Bayt, Sahabah, or Sha'ar-i-Islam was made a cognisable offence, punishable with imprisonment, a fine, or death.
===== Madrassa expansions ===== Traditional religious madrassas in Pakistan received state sponsorship for the first time, under General Zia-ul-Haq's administration, their number grew from 893 to 2,801. Most were Deobandi in doctrinal orientation, while one-quarter of them were Barelvi. They received funding from Zakat councils and provided free religious training, room, and board to impoverished Pakistanis. The schools, which banned televisions and radios, have been criticised by authors for stoking sectarian hatred both between Muslim sects and against non-Muslims.
