Muhammad Zia ul-Haq

General Muhammad Zia ul-Haq (12 August 1924 to 17 August 1988) ruled Pakistan from the coup of 5 July 1977 until his death. Wikipedia says he was born in Jalandhar in the Punjab of British India, was commissioned into the British Indian Army in 1943 and joined the Pakistan Army after Partition. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto made him Chief of Army Staff on 1 March 1976. Zia deposed Bhutto in "Operation Fair Play", declared martial law and had himself named president on 16 September 1978. Bhutto was hanged on 4 April 1979.

At home his rule is known for a programme of Islamisation, including Sharia benches in the high courts and the Hudood laws. Tariq Aqil, writing in The Friday Times, blames his eleven years for the blasphemy laws and for gender-based violence. Abroad, backed by the United States and Saudi Arabia, he coordinated the Afghan mujahideen against the Soviet occupation.

Zia and the Punjab across the border

• India has said that Pakistan armed, trained and "to a certain extent" financed Sikh armed groups in the 1980s. Pakistan gave assurances that it did not support the Sikh movement, according to Shaikh Aziz in Dawn (2015).
• Aziz records that India alleged Zia showed "unusual hospitality" to visiting Sikh pilgrims, and that after a map of Khalistan took in parts of Pakistani Punjab, Zia ordered Sikhs kept under strict surveillance.
• Tariq Aqil (The Friday Times, 2023) writes that Zia and his ISI chief, General Akhtar Abdur Rahman, strongly backed the Khalistan movement with material and moral support. That is one Pakistani writer's account.

Key dates

• 5 July 1977: seizes power.
• 4 April 1979: Bhutto is hanged.
• 1980s: the Afghan war, and Indian allegations of ISI help to Sikh armed groups, which Pakistan said it did not give.
• 17 August 1988: killed when his C-130 crashes near Bahawalpur.

His death. Everyone aboard died, including Akhtar Abdur Rahman, the US ambassador Arnold Raphel and Brigadier General Herbert Wassom. Pakistan's board of inquiry found no mechanical cause and concluded that, without a technical reason, only a criminal act or sabotage remained; the US side backed the theory of a malfunction. Dawn wrote in 2018 that no one has been identified and the mystery remains.

Remembered for: eleven years of military rule and Islamisation, the Afghan war, and, in Sikh memory, the allegations of Pakistani support for the Kharku movement that Pakistan said it did not give.