Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (12 August 1924 – 17 August 1988) was a Pakistani military officer who served as the sixth president of Pakistan from 1978 until his death. He also served as the second chief of the army staff of the Pakistan Army from 1 March 1976 until his death.

Zia was born in Jalandhar and trained at the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun. In 1943, he was commissioned in the British Indian Army and fought in the Pacific War of the Second World War. Following the partition of India in 1947, Zia joined the Pakistan Army and was stationed in the Frontier Force Regiment. During the Black September, he played a prominent role in defending the Jordanian Armed Forces against the Palestinian Liberation Organization. In 1976, Zia was elevated to the rank of General and was appointed as Chief of Army Staff, succeeding Tikka Khan, by prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

In July 1977, Zia organized Operation Fair Play, during which he deposed Bhutto and declared martial law. Zia remained de facto leader for over a year, assuming presidency in September 1978. He directed the Islamization in Pakistan, escalated the country's atomic bomb project and instituted industrialization and deregulation. In 1979, following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Zia adopted an anti-Soviet stance and aided the Afghan mujahidin. He bolstered ties with China and the United States and emphasized Pakistan's role in the Islamic world. Zia held non-partisan elections in 1985 and appointed Muhammad Junejo prime minister, though he accumulated more presidential powers through the Eighth Amendment in the Constitution of Pakistan. He dismissed Junejo's government on charges of economic stagflation and announced general elections in November 1988. In August 1988, while travelling from Bahawalpur to Islamabad, Zia was killed in an aircraft crash near the Sutlej River. He was buried at the Faisal Mosque in Islamabad.

Zia dominated Pakistan's politics for over a decade and his proxy war against the Soviet Union is credited with stopping an expected Soviet invasion of Pakistan. He is praised by Islamists for his desecularization efforts and opposition to Western culture. Zia's detractors criticize his authoritarianism, his press censorship, his purported religious intolerance and his weakening of democracy in Pakistan. This overall policy would lead to the philosophy that is Ziaism. Zia is also cited for promoting the political career of Nawaz Sharif, who would be thrice elected prime minister.