The Struggle for Pakistan: A Muslim Homeland and Global Politics by Ayesha Jalal

Author:Ayesha Jalal [Jalal, Ayesha]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 2014-09-16T00:00:00+00:00

“You Can Forget Elections”

Islamic ideology and military might were the twin pillars on which General Zia-ul-Haq began building his new order.2 Senior civil bureaucrats who encountered him could see that the political ethos of the government had changed dramatically. Unlike the two “modernist” coup makers of the past, Zia was wedded to the idea of taking the country back to the times of the Prophet Muhammad. At his first meeting with government secretaries, the CMLA singled out the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Haj arrangements for criticism.3 He reshuffled the Council of Islamic Ideology for which provision had been made in the 1973 constitution. In a move that had detrimental effects on the expanding waistlines of civil bureaucrats, the regime promoted the national dress shalwar kameez, a long, loose shirt with baggy trousers, over the customary Western-style suits. To make good Muslims out of civil officials, prayers were introduced in government offices and religious piety upheld as a virtue to be considered in promotion decisions. The colonial culture of army messes underwent similar change. Drinking officers were frowned upon and the visibly pious identified for promotion. Often attributed to Zia’s personal whims, these changes were a sign of the times. The global Islamic reassertion spearheaded by Saudi Arabia and Arab petro-dollars was making itself felt in Pakistan. There were unmistakable signs of the Saudi imprint on Zia’s locally honed ideological agenda. The proud champion of Islam liked giving Mawdudi’s writings as official gifts and awards. For the first time in the history of Pakistan, the Jamaat-i-Islami had found a soul mate at the helm of government. The ensuing transformation of Pakistan’s liberal and moderate social landscape was swift and brazen.

Needing to consolidate power and win a semblance of legitimacy to implement his “Islamization” policies and neoliberal economic agenda, Zia emulated the tactics of the proverbial camel who slowly inched his master out of the tent. Promising the people free and fair elections within three months, he soon switched gears upon realizing the extent of the PPP’s continuing popularity. This became painfully evident to the military high command on August 8, 1977, when a sea of people gave the deposed prime minister a rapturous welcome in Lahore. Bhutto did not help matters by abusing Zia and threatening to try him for high treason under article 6 of the constitution. Upon being released from custody, the PPP populist harangued the junta in no uncertain terms. He maintained that the military had started planning the coup before the elections and that there was a foreign conspiracy to prevent Pakistan from acquiring the French nuclear reactor. Fearing stern retribution, the army high command began looking for ways to silence and, better still, disqualify Bhutto and the PPP from participating in the elections. Bhutto was accused of ordering the FSF to murder Ahmad Raza Kasuri, a supporter-turned-political-opponent, whose father, Nawab Mohammad Ahmad Khan, ended up getting killed in the firing on their motorcade. The incident that resulted in Ahmad Raza Kasuri’s father’s death had occurred three years earlier, and the evidence was circumstantial.

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