Pak Economy Final Project

Topic: Impacts of Zia’s Islamization

Group Members:
Sharmeen Abbas
Maheen Sajjad
Sidra Irfan
Zainab Haider

Submitted to: Ma’am Hamna Ahmad

Submitted on: 2nd July, 2015
Introduction:
Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, the sixth President of Pakistan in 1977 till his demise. He avowed martial
law for the third period in the country’s history. He ruled eleven years helping as a Head of state
of Pakistan and did much effort to convey religion into ordinary society, the brace for the
mujahideen battle contrary to Soviets in Afghanistan.
Every administration salaried only lip service regarding the religion Islam and there wasn’t any
truthful effort before Zia ever made in this direction. General Zia was conscious of such feelings.
So, he focused his devotion towards practical measure. Main points that were computed in this
regard are: Conception of encouraging atmosphere,
Improvements in information media,
Prohibition on lewd adds,
Connection with Ulama and Mashaikh,
Abolition of disorder,
Prayer in audience,
Admiration for Ramazan,
Better conveniences for pilgrimage,
Resettling of education guideline,
Building of International Islamic University Islamabad,
Arranging the Sharia court,
Sharia bench of Supreme court,
Qazi courts,
Development in the direction of Islamic economic system,
National language and national dress,
Judgments about Qadianis,
Implementation of Sharia rule in 1988.

1. During the Zia government such an atmosphere was created where denoting Islam was
respected and contrasting Islam was detested and criticized. He acted upon Islamic
commands, declared speeches and the addresses he used to deliver imitated his devoutness
to Islam.
2. Firstly, He introduced developments in media as his important role was creating favorable
community view for a specific organization. Music and dancing was banned whereas
penitentiary programs were presented. Azan was ventilated at the time of prayers. Hajj live
broadcast were publicized on small screen programs and entirely T.V programs were
clogged overall throughout Iftar time to present peaceful surroundings for the Muslims to
pray.
3. Zia concerned agreements of Ulama and Mashaikh to prompt their view easily and to
disapprove government if it trails the un-Islamic path.
 4. For every prayer, arrangements were made for attending in the government offices and
schools. Nazimin-i-Salat was selected who used to assemble the organizations of the
prayers, and advised the societies to offer prayers.
5. To implement the admiration for Ramazan a superior order was released, conferring to
which smoking, drinking, eating was forbidden publically and who so ever set up doing
that could be confined for three months or will be fined for 500 rupees. All the foodstuff
markets were closed down during Ramazan.
6. To instruct Islamic concept in students, general Zia well-arranged to appraisal all textbooks
regarding Islam and the ideology of Pakistan was removed. Islamiat and Pakistan studies
was made obligatory and were presented in all categories of educational foundations.
Arabic language was presented as obligatory subject from sixth to eight Class.
7. For the research in fiqh and principles of Sharia an Islamic International University was
established in Islamabad.
8. On 10 February 1979, Four punishments were imposed by an decree as mentioned in
Quran. Punishments include the wounding of hands for theft, hundred strokes and pelting
for death for infidelity and eighty lashes for drinking and for wrong allegation of disloyalty.
9. The sharia bench of Supreme Court was the uppermost court for plea concerning Islamic
law and the values of Islamic Law are deliberated and understood.
10. For protecting the people from the prejudice of bureaucracy the government chosen a
regulator in June 1981, who might transfer the grumbles of the societies.

General Zia is a provocative character in the history of Pakistan. He faced the leading class of
Pakistan, who were disappointed with his speedy Islamization of Pakistan. Political Ulema
reinforced Zia but claimed that Islamizing the nation wasn’t Zia’s Job as an alternative of this he
must focus on to hold polls and handover the control to elected legislatures, who will resolve then
to impose Islam.

Major Impacts:
1) Sectarian Division
Sectarian division is the most critical factor for the political, religious, social and security issues
of the country. Sectarian division in Pakistan from the past many years has affected the
humanity by deaths, bomb blasts and physical torture etc. The state heads instead of managing
the situation by reducing the differences caused by sectarian division, tried to exploit the issue
for their personal and political benefits. The history of the sectarian division is as old as the
country .The actual creation of sectarian division came into being in the last 1970s and early
1980s because of political differences and the implications of Islamic revolution in Iran and
some Arab countries. The regime of General Muhammad Zia ul Haq which started from July
5,1977 engaged a strategy of using religion for political purposes by starting a process named
as ‘’Islamization”.This process deepened the differences between Shias and Sunnis of the
country severely. Zia adopted the policy of Sunni sectarianism which increased the formation
madrassas in all over the country. In 1984 Saudi government demanded Pakistan Army to
replace the Shia soldiers with Sunni soldiers in the army units. Pakistan being the second largest
Muslim country in the Muslim world is suffering from hate, intolerance, extremism and terrorism
regarding Shia and Sunnis. Since 1980 when sectarian division got birth in this country till today
there are thousands of people who have been killed because of this lethal disease. The saddest
part of sectarianism is targeting each other’s religious mosques by various extremist groups of
Shias and Sunnis. Sectarianism is the result of the processes of Islamization and the formation
of secular democratic effects. Instead of promoting liberalism and equality, government
promoted sectarian division and religious riots. The political use of the religion by the
government initiated hatred and aggressiveness within many Shias and Sunnis. This leaded to
the creation of main sects and sub sects by the formation of various religious parties and groups
like jihadi militants. The jihadi media has flourished since their creation during Zia’s period and
have formed a shape of famous Sunni terrorist organizations like Lashkar-e-taiba,
Sipah-e-Sahaba and Jash-e-Muhammad enjoyed the disobedience of law. Due to the process of
Islamization by General Zia ul Haq the sectarian division became much violent. Zia’s strategy of
introducing Islamic Sharia served as a major brand of Sunni jurisprudence which created a
discord between Shias and Sunnis in the country. The imposition of zakat in 1980 by Zia was
resisted by Shia leaders as they opposed that if you have to follow the Islamic Sharia then you
should allow us to follow their own jurisprudence known as Jaffaria fiqh after the sixth Imam
Jafaral Sadiq A.S. The sectarian differences were clearly drawn between the Shias and Sunnis
as the Shias refused to follow the Sunni Sharia law and demanded their separate recognition as
a different sect in Islam. The situation was worse in the district Jhang, Punjab in which the
disputes arose between the peasant Sunnis and feudal landlords that were Shias. The
Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) was founded in reaction to Tehreek-e-Fiqh-e-Jaffaria in 1980s
demanded to declare Shias as nonmuslims. Another Shia organization named as
Sipah-e-Muhammdi (SMP) Pakistan was formed which lead to the antishia sunni militant
organization named as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ). Zia saw the SSP as a check on the influence of
Shias and he promoted it freely. This leads to the formation of links between SSP and ISI (Inter-
Services Intelligence) which supported the jihadi operations in Afghanistan and India controlled
Kashmir by Pakistan. The deepening of Sunni Shia differences was due to the policies of Zia in
its middle era. Since 1980s Pakistan has seen sectarian violence in the form of killing and injury
of thousands of people. According to a BBC report since the past 25 years, about 4000 people
have been killed in Pakistan as result of sectarian division. Before it’s too late the state heads of
the country should actively deal with the elimination of extremism in Pakistan. From the past two
decades a lesson has been learnt that the level of tolerance is really gone down. The parties
related with sectarian division should be politically expressive, flexible, tolerant, and mature. Due
to the unfortunate reasons no one could manage the differences caused by sectarian division and
the situation got worse with each passing day. We should deal with issue in an effective manner
in order to make our country free from these lethal sectarian differences which are harmful both
for the stability of the country and of the people as well.
 2) Rise of Fundamentalism
Fundamentalism is defined as: A religion that defends strict beliefs and verbal understanding of a
scripture specifically Islam and Christianity.
Long ago fundamentalism has become the most threatening hot issues of Pakistan. This has started
from 1980’s the period when General Zia ul Haq was in power. After the Russian attack of
Afghanistan, Zia maintained good relations with the United States. In order to strengthen his
political position Zia introduced many Islamic legislations and maintained developments in this
regard that is building of Madrasas. The most glaring features in his legislations is the “culture of
Jihad” which is still in practice even today. Basically he was using such strategies to justify his
reign and ‘Islamize’ the economy.
Now a day’s Islamic fundamentalism has become a very important sensation not only in Pakistan
but also in other Islamic countries. While analysing Islam as a religion and Islamic fundamentalism
are two distinct subjects. If we study the teachings of Islam we will get to know that
fundamentalists are the finest Muslims. Fundamentalists totally deny the true interpretation of the
principles of Islam. Fundamentalism derives a society towards backwardness. It has taken many
fundamentalists to the period of Ignorance (Jahliya).
The creation of a separate nation for the Indian Muslims, as the Muslims were in minority their
rights were being ignored. Therefore they were rewarded with a separate homeland by Jinnah on
August 14, 1947. The purpose of its creation was to practice the Islamic laws and its fundamental
principles accordingly. The establishment of two separate states in South Asia, Pakistan and
Bangladesh and the presence of Muslims in India even today shows the power of Islamization in
India. After independence a movement has been started to develop the fate of Muslims. It
challenged that the roles of Muslims in both the countries were different. In Pakistan they had to
put it into practice whereas in India Muslims being a minority had to accept themselves living in
a ‘secular state’.
General Zia Ul Haq (1977-88) implemented islamization politically and socially.
(Rashid, Taliban, 89) reported that thousands of madrasas were made in order to assist immigrants
of Afghanistan and the deprived of Baluchistan and KPK. The funds were majorly coming from
government of Pakistan only a slight share came from Saudi Arabia (from the JUI) till 1970 it had
been a successive movement that established many institutions in Baluchistan and KPK. These
Madrasas have succeeded in providing religious education to the rural poor and abolished many
misconceptions related to Islam by declaring ‘Fatwas’ (reliable opinions on any issue related to
law). Even though these madrasas have posed to be an excellent medium of learning, there are
some issues which indicate that these madrasas have created extremism and false believes which
declined the spread of Madrasas till 1977. This dispute lead to sectarian divide. According to which
Muslims were divided into different sub groups, a war broke out in Afghanistan. The Heads of
these groups were sent to Pakistan, several Pakistanis’ who participated in Afghan war were the
students of these Madrasas.
In Pakistan from the highly inhabited provinces, Punjab and KPK, a huge population of young
aggressive Madrasah students are those who handle the politics of religion, because they were
fuming for their rights. The upper class prefers English rather than any other language, however it
is a gateway to success in future. Majority people were unable to take those jobs for which English
is compulsory. Hence they were deprived of the respect which should be given to them. (Rehman
2002: 163)
The incident of September 11, 2001 (the terrorist attack in New York) has changed the attitude of
West towards Islam. They perceived Islam as a religion that leads aggression, extremism and
stiffness.
Consequences of fundamentalism:
Consequently, the role of military regimes and attack of the refugees have disturbed the social and
political standing of Pakistan. It is due to the rule of General Zia Ul Haq that religious
misapplication took place and many of the students from Madrasas became Taliban. In provinces
of KPK and Baluchistan the exploitation is on a large measures

3) Impact on women of Pakistan

Nizam-e Mustafa was the foundation of General Zia ul Haq’s government. He wanted to
implement the order and teachings of Islam in Pakistan. His government was founded on Islamic
ideology. The islamization he wanted to implement comprised of:
1) Teaching islamiat all over
2) Collection of zakat and usher
3) To enforce Islamic law in constitution

Some people of that period believed that Zia’s islamization was basically a political agenda rather
than being a religious one. Before Zia’s period man Islamic movements had an immense effect on
women because women are generally considered weaker gender and they lack the essential
political power to run a system. However, this was proven wrong when Benazir Bhutto became
the first female Prime Minister of Pakistan. This proved that women’s participation in Pakistan
serves an important function in running the system.
The basic motive of Muslim women was the protection of family laws. Islam gave women many
rights like a right to get married, inheritance rights, right to be respected and treated well, and
basically Islam gave women a right to live because before Islam women were buried alive. After
independence Muslim family laws Ordinance 1961 hypothetically boosted women’s legal rights
all over Pakistan.
One of the prominent impact of Zia’s islamization policies was to limit polygyny in order to defend
women. Polygyny is however allowed in Islam under certain circumstances. Many women fear
this concept of polygyny as they are afraid of being left alone-emotionally and financially if a man
marries another woman. To resolve this issue Zia laid down a rule that a man is supposed to submit
an application for permission of second marriage, declaring the explanations and details with
proper reasoning and also obtain the current wife’s approval then the chairman will set up a
meeting which will include both husband and wife and it will be decided if it is compulsory and
fair and if so then the man will be permitted to marry the other woman. Another issue raised in the
regime of Zia was a separate university for women. The students of an orthodox political party
called “Jammat-i-talaba” raised the issue of separate universities for women. Some people
supported co-education while some were highly against it and considered it to be a practice in
western culture and they considered co-education as unsuitable for an Islamic state. However, in
Quran and Sunnah it is very clear that Allah has declared seeking of knowledge mandatory for
both genders.
Islamization of Zia was focused on “Chadaar and Chaar dewari” and this was to be applied by
every woman. Islamization in Zia period also focused on the outward presence of working women.
In 1983, PTV female news reader was asked to stop wearing makeup and avoid using different
fashions and experimenting latest hair styles, by a government directive. Some also recommended
wearing veils for all female news casters. PIA officials ordered modest uniforms for female
workers. These government directives also commanded female teachers to wear large shawl while
teaching in class rooms.
Another aspect of Zia’s islamization policies was that the rape could be termed as adultery if
legally four witnesses were not provided. National Commission on the status of women declared
that a number of rapes were termed as Zina. Zia also implemented “The Law of Proof” which is
also proposed by Sharia. It suggested that the testament of a woman was not equal to that of a man.
Legally, testimony of two women is equal to that of one man. Many protests were made at that
time to prevent Zia on making Sharia law as the law of Pakistan.
Islam and Sharia laws were misinterpreted specially in the case of women of Pakistan. Women
were victims of discrimination in Zia’s period. This was actually to hold back women as claimed
by many NGO’s working for the welfare for women in Zia’s period.

CONCLUSION:
Zia’s islamization policies caused a shift in the lives of Pakistanis. General Zia-ul-Haq desired to
make Pakistan country the castle of Islam so that it may perhaps show a moral and projecting role
for the Islamic world. The phases occupied by General Zia were in such a direction that the long-
term effect like Zakat tax was announced, still it holds and many of his other laws. The Hudood
Rule for the first time presented in Pakistan, which means the chastisements intended by the Holy
Quran or Sunnah on the usage of alcohol, robbery, disloyalty and the qazf. Further down this
Decree, a criminal might be punished to smashing, lifetime custody and in few cases demise by
stoning. Despite his utmost struggle, Zia could not obtain sufficient support for implementing
islamization. Majority of Ullama were completely satisfied with the islamization policies of Zia as
their role was strengthened to impose Islamic laws. Basically, Islam was mis interpreted for
political causes and the laws were biased which were implemented as sharia laws whereas actually
they did not mean what was extracted out of them. The conflict between Sunni and Shia was due
to Zia’s islamization policies and it grew over time. Pakistanis suffered the most suffocating years
in the rule of Zia as said by some critics. Extremism and certain acts of violence increased
tremendously during his period as per statistics around 39000 Pakistanis died in terrorist attacks
during Zia’s period. This is basically due to the fact that religious education is not interpreted
correctly. To abolish the ideologies of sectarian division, extremism and in equality, Pakistan must
invest in promoting rightly interpreted religious knowledge as well as worldly knowledge

Lastly Zia penalized Bhutto to death for a homicide case as he was the only single demonstrator
on such a huge gauge. Zia desired to eliminate every barrier coming from his approach. He strained
to launch this Islamic Organization which he announced himself to people but it couldn’t be upheld
for a lengthier time as modernists were against his islamization policies. And soon after some years
Zia also passed away in a bomb blast in an aero plane.
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