Article

2017-02-22 India-Pakistan

[DAWN] It will soon enough be 70 years since Pakistain came into existence, under the aegis of a founding father who clearly declared, on the eve of independence, that he did not envisage any barriers between faiths or any interference by the state in the personal beliefs of its citizens. But, as the Objectives Resolution adopted by an undemocratic assembly barely months after his demise illustrates, Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s secular ideals cut little ice with those who had used him in the preceding years as a conduit for their pseudo-religious fantasies.

This year also brings another landmark anniversary. By and large, Islamist fundamentalism remained on the periphery of Pak politics until 1977. Sure, much had gone wrong before then, but it was the advent of Gen Zia ul Haq

...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'état 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...
’s military dictatorship that effectively sealed the nation’s fate.

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Posted by Fred 2017-02-22 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11136 views ] Top
File under: Govt of Pakistan

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