If a list of the most despicable personalities is compiled today, Zia-ul-Haq, the former Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), would probably clench the top position in Pakistan.
Trailing way behind him, a tight contest would be held between the current and the prior leadership of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP): Mullah Fazlullah, Baitullah Mehsud, and Hakeemullah Mehsud.
In Punjab, however, the hatred for Altaf Hussain, the leader of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), runs so deep that he might surpass both the former Martial Law administrator and the leaders of terrorist organisation combined together. But that is not the point. The point is that how is a former Chief of the Army Staff aligned with the established enemies of the state; people who have killed hundreds of innocent civilians in the name of Islam.
Simply put, anyone who sets aside the constitution for personal benefits declares a war against the state and its people. Zia-ul-Haq did that. In addition, he also introduced and approved the violent version of religion in society. This version that still haunts us today in the form of fundamentalism, sectarianism, and jihadism. So the difference between the two of them–the leadership of TTP and the former COAS–is that of strategy not of the objective. If the former detonates the bombs, the latter provided them with the resources.
Zia supporters on the other hand, as few still hang around, argue that although he manipulated religious emotions, those emotions had already existed before he seized control. He did not create today’s Pakistan, instead he just advanced those ideas that he thought were shared by most Pakistanis. So singling him out is not fair. The whole society needs to take the blame. For example, Ahmedis, after clashes with Sunnis in the early seventies, had constitutionally been declared as non-Muslims. Did he vote for that amendment or participate in any way to influence the parliamentarians? Of course not. He did not even exist anywhere in the picture then.
Similarly, he did not ignite the movement to remove Zulifqar Ali Bhutto when the allegations of rigging had surfaced after the 1977 elections. On the contrary, it was Bhutto who had used unnecessary power to crush the opposition. Once he rose to power, though, Zia-ul-Haq had made use of the same emotions of implementing the Shariat law that was promised by the PNA (Pakistan National Alliance) to gain popularity and establish his rule. Anyone else would have done the same in his shoes.
Furthermore, throughout his career as a dictator, he kept Islamic clerics close to himself both as a matter of strategy and principle. These clerics helped him tremendously to strengthen his image as a sincere ruler, creating a facade of piety and simplicity around him. People who claimed to know him personally always talked about his commitment to Islam, his punctuality in offering prayers, his inspiration to seek guidance from the life of the Prophet (PBUH), and his devotion to the Creator. They always seemed to wonder how a person in his position could only fear God and no one else, only worry about His approval and no one else’s, was only concerned about His commands and no one else’s? And yes, let me admit that Zia maintained a reasonable popularity throughout his career, which was way more than General Musharraf when he was forced to step down and resign. I saw some bursting into tears when they heard the news of the plane crash on August 17. They grieved as if they had lost a sincere friend and worried that the corrupt politicians would take over the country once again.
But we should never be fooled by appearances or let the outer core of piety, sincerity and honesty cloud our judgement. His personal attributes notwithstanding, we must realise that the society took a U-turn from modernisation to ritualisation because of him and his team of propagandists: the clerics. It was because of him that we are still struggling to wriggle ourselves out of the deep mud of sectarianism, extremism and religious bigotry. It was because of him that we still have a confused and irreconcilable concept of the state and religion. And it was because of him that we are stuck in a war that we had supposedly won three decades ago.
Having said that, as a nation we have evolved to love our Army Chiefs, not hate them– a fact that has incorporated into our genes. It is, therefore, expected that all the COASs would fall in the list of the most respectable Pakistanis, not in the category of the most vicious ones. As the nation looks forward to greeting the upcoming Chief, how can he be included in the former? In order to build his own legacy of integrity and respect, he has to eradicate the legacy of Zia. And the best way of doing that would be to ensure the safety of religious minorities by taking swift action against the banned sectarian organisations and launching a long overdue operation against them while removing the undisclosed protection that they enjoy today. In today’s Pakistan, there has to be no place for Zia, his ideology, his tactics or his mean-spirited religious bigotry anymore.
The writer is a US-based freelance columnist and can be reached at [email protected]