Mohammed Zia-ul-Haq

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Mohammed Zia-ul-Haq

General Mohammed Zia-ul-Haq ( Urdu محمد ضیاء الحق; * August 12, 1924 in Jalandhar , Punjab ; † August 17, 1988 in Bahawalpur , Pakistan) was a Pakistani politician. He ruled Pakistan between 1977 and 1988. The Zia era is seen as the low point in Pakistan's history.

Life

Zia-ul-Haq was the second son of a teacher named Mohammed Akram. His school education took place in Shimla and then in Delhi . In 1943 he was in the British Indian Army during World War II . When Pakistan gained independence from India , he became a major in the Pakistani army . Between 1962 and 1964 he was in the United States trained and came from 1967 to 1970 by Jordan to Jordanian soldiers train. On April 1, 1976, Zia-ul-Haq was promoted to Chief of Staff of the Army by Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto .

On July 5, 1977, Zia-ul-Haq led a military coup against Bhutto's government and immediately declared martial law . He promised a general election within three months. Bhutto was eventually acquitted, but remained so popular that he could have won the promised referendum. As a result, Zia-ul-Haq postponed the elections and initiated a process against the Bhutto leadership ( PPP ). Bhutto was convicted and executed on April 4, 1979 .

Shortly after coming to power, Zia-ul-Haq declared that he wanted to establish an Islamic system ( nizam islami ). It brought about a comprehensive Islamization of public life, politics and the judicial system. With the Hudood Ordinances , he reintroduced Islamic hadd punishments - such as chopping off hands in the event of theft or stoning in the event of adultery - and thus became a pioneer in the global trend towards the reintroduction of Sharia law .

In the 1980s, Zia-ul-Haq decided to hold elections, but the December 1984 referendum was controversial because one vote for Islam was equated with one vote for Zia-ul-Haq. Zia-ul-Haq won the election by a 95% majority and became President of Pakistan for another five years.

In early 1988, rumors pointed to a dispute between Zia-ul-Haq and the 1985 appointed Prime Minister Muhammad Khan Junejo . Zia-ul-Haq therefore refused to share power. On May 29, 1988, the government was dissolved and the head of government dismissed according to Art. 58 (2) b of the new federal constitution.

After eleven years in power, Zia-ul-Haq again promised elections within 90 days, but by that time his popularity had sunk to a new low. The elections were postponed, but before they could take place, Zia-ul-Haq died on August 17, 1988 aboard a Lockheed C-130 of the Pakistani Air Force (PAF) that crashed shortly after take-off from Bahawalpur Airport. It has not yet been clarified whether this was an accident or an assassination attempt .

Fred Burton, a former deputy head of the US State Department's Diplomatic Security Service , said he was involved in the crash investigation. In his memoirs, he states that American studies have found traces of nerve gas and small amounts of explosives on the wreckage. It was concluded that the explosives could have come from an opening mechanism of a nerve gas container in the cockpit area. The nerve gas killed the pilots within a very short time, which would explain the flight behavior of the machine before the crash and the lack of an emergency call. He describes the KGB as the only actor who had the skills necessary for the attack and a plausible motive.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's daughter , Benazir Bhutto , blamed Zia-ul-Haq's followers for an attack on her in October 2007. A few weeks later, on December 27, 2007, she was murdered .

Books

Individual evidence

  1. Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  2. Did exploding mangoes kill Pakistan's dictator? Welt online, October 27, 2018, accessed October 27, 2018
  3. Fred Burton: Ghost. Confessions of a Counterterrorism Agent , New York 2008, pp. 193-194.
  4. Fred Burton: Ghost. Confessions of a Counterterrorism Agent , New York 2008, 195.
  5. dradio.de: Bhutto blames supporters of the former military ruler Zia for the attack ( Memento from March 16, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (October 19, 2007)
  6. Tagesspiegel: Bhutto: "I know exactly who wanted to kill me" (October 19, 2007)
predecessor Office successor
Tikka Khan Chief of Staff of the Pakistan Army
1976–1988
Mirza Aslam Beg
Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry President of Pakistan
1978–1988
Ghulam Ishaq Khan