The country has been trying to shed the legacy of a dictator ever since, but has miserably failed. Gen. Zia ul Haq's
...the creepy-looking former dictator of Pakistain. Zia was an Islamic nutball who imposed his nutballery on the rest of the country with the enthusiastic assistance of the nation's religious parties, which are populated by other nutballs. He was appointed Chief of Army Staff in 1976 by Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, whom he hanged when he seized power. His time in office was a period of repression, with hundreds of thousands of political rivals, minorities, and journalists executed or tortured, including senior general officers convicted in coup-d'etat plots, who would normally be above the law. As part of his alliance with the religious parties, his government helped run the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, providing safe havens, American equipiment, Saudi money, and Pak handlers to selected mujaheddin. Zia died along with several of his top generals and admirals and the then United States Ambassador to Pakistain Arnold Lewis Raphel when he was assassinated in a suspicious air crash near Bahawalpur in 1988...11-year rule had left deep scars on the conscience of the nation. It was he who helped the sectarian genies to come out of the bottle; now no one knows how to get them back.
He divided the nation on religious and sectarian lines -- a gimmick to prolong his grip on power. In these 35 years, the Pak nation slipped backward on human rights
One man's rights are another man's existential threat.
, women empowerment and religious tolerance, and the liberal, enlightened and tolerant Pakistain of yesteryears vanished from people's memory.
We see Gen. Zia's footprints in people's behavior and mindset, in events that put the whole region on fire and the ongoing bloodshed and turmoil. Afghanistan and Kashmire are his living legacies.
The Zia regime helped establish a number of madrassas with the financial support of the West, which turned out to be breeding grounds for militancy. Afghan and Pak Taliban, numerous sectarian outfits and the political straitjackets in the country are all his bequests.
Gen. Zia changed the nation into a hysterical mob ready to kill and maim. Until we undo the changes he brought about in people's minds and hearts, this nation will continue to grope in darkness.