Zia’s role in religious discrimination in Pakistan.

During late 1970’s, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s government failed to negotiate with PNA(Pakistan
National Alliance) , and in the light of worsen law and order situation, General Zia-Ul-Haq
imposed martial law and arrested Bhutto along with his cabinet. He promised to held elections in
October 1977. Later that month, he was released. Zia again arrested him and did not allow his
election campaign to happen because he was afraid that Bhutto might get popular again. He also
postponed the elections. Bhutto was also accused of a murder of Mehmood Ahmed Khan, father
of a prominent lawyer, Ahmed Raza Qasuri. Two years later, Bhutto was declared guilty.
Despite all the foreign pressures, Zia was not ready to overrule court’s order. In April 1979,
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was hanged in Central jail Rawalpindi. There are many conspiracy theories
that Zia wanted to get rid of Bhutto, and get into power. After Bhutto’s execution, Zia came into
power. He is highly criticized today for his policies that led to the spread of religious
discrimination in Pakistan. Religious discrimination was seen even at the time of creation of
Pakistan. Muhammad Ali Jinnah(founder of Pakistan) did try to control religious discrimination,
but the leader who came after him, were not able to implement Jinnah’s vision to eradicate
religious discrimination from the country. The dictatorship of Zia proved to be the worst
amongst them. Not only his policies had a bad impact on Pakistan at that time, but it is affecting
today’s Pakistan in several ways.

Shia-Sunni sectarianism.

Before Zia, the relationship between the Sunnis and Shias was friendly. Pakistan’s involvement
in Soviet-Afghan war, Zia’s moot Islamization policies, and Shia’s empowerment after the Iran
revolution in 1979 had an effect on Shias of Pakistan, limiting them to practice their religion in
the country. During the late 1970’s, Soviet-Afghan war started, Zia instructed army and militant
organizations to support Afghanistan. Madrassas network expanded rapidly in Pakistan, funded
by Saudi Arabia to make fighters for Afghanistan against the Soviets.i “To put that number in
perspective, consider that the most prolific Sunni institute, the Wifaq ul Madaris Arabiya, which
is associated with the Deobandi school of thought, operates 8,191 madaris”. These soldiers were
given the title of “jihadis” who also turned out to be anti-Shias. Meanwhile, on the other hand,
Iran funded Shia madrassas in Pakistan. In 1979, there was an uprising in Iran known as Iranian
revolution. It had a strong influence of Shias in Pakistan. It gave them a new identity and a new
methodology to practice their religion in a different way. The rise of Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran
inspired Shias in Pakistan. In Pakistan, Khana-e-Farhang offered Pakistanis to pursue their
religious studies in centers of Iran and offered them scholarships. ii “About four thousand students
received scholarships and were introduced to Vilayat-e-Faqih.” These Irani enlightened students
travelled all over Pakistan and shared their experiences with the Shias in Pakistan. They were
able to inspire many Pakistani Shia’s.

In 1979, general Zia tried to implement Hanafi-Sunni laws in the country, to justify his military
power and please the Sunni political parties. However, he faced reluctance from the Shias, as
they believed that Zia is imposing Sunni laws over them( Shia school of thoughts and Sunni
school of thoughts were different). A major Shia leader, Mufti Jafar Hussain resigned from the
council of Islamic ideology in protest against Zia. In response, JUI (Jamiat-ul-Ulema-i-Islam)
started protesting against Shias declaring their religious practices as violation to Islamic beliefs.
Another party, JUAH(Jamiat-ul-Ulema-iAhle Hadith) protested against Iran revolution, and also
against Ayatollah Khomeini. In 1979, a meeting held in Bhakkar city, led by Mufti Jafar
Hussain, to discuss about the so-called Islamization polices of Zia. The outcome of that meeting
was the formation of Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-fiqh-e-Jafria(T.N.F.J). They threatened Zia’s government
with a national protest movement if following demands were not fulfilled. iii “ They wanted Shia
law to be recognized by the court and they wanted Shia ulema at position of judges. They wanted
the formation of Shia board. They wanted the restriction to be lifted from “azadari. They wanted
representation of Shia in education policy committee and they wanted the government to invite
Shia ulema from Iran to teach in Pakistan”. However, Zia didn’t pay much attention and
continued his agenda.

In 1980, he introduced ushr (tax on the products produced at farms) or zakat(tax paid by the rich
to the poor) ordinance. Zia’s policy of introducing ushr ordinance was one of the main reason for
the sectarianism, ultimately, contributing to the religious descrimination in the country. Shias
opposed the ordinance and Shia groups such as Wifaq-i-Ulema-i-Shia, TNFJ and others marched
to Islamabad with a huge number of protestors. They held a siege for 3 days at the federal
secretariate in Islamabad. They also asked Ayatollah Khomeini for help. He privately contacted
Zia and Zia agreed to give Shias relief by not exempting money for zakat from Shia’s bank
accounts. However, Zia accepting demands of Shias had negative impacts, since Shias had
started relying on Iraq to help them in their demands from the Pakistani government. The Sunnis
started opposing the Shias. They believed that zakat is the major pillar of Islam, and since Shias
are rejecting to pay zakat, they are refusing to follow the laws given by Islam. A Wahabi group
Sawed-e- Azam Ahle-e-Sunnat, funded by Saudi Arabia, even advocated that Shias should be
declared non-Muslims and Pakistan should be declared as a Sunni state. Similarly, Ahsan Ilahi
Zaheer, who led a Saudi funded organization, wrote a book with the title Shia and Shiism. In his
book he declared Shias as Jewish agents. The book was distributed all over the world in Saudi
embassies. This led to violence attack on Shias in 1983 in Karachi and they took help from Iran.

Zia realized that Shias are getting way too strong and influenced, so in 1985, he and his
intelligence agencies funded Haq Nawaz Jhangvi(vice president of JUI) to establish a new anti-
Shia organization called Sipah-i-Sahaba. Sipah-i-Sahaba started anti-Shia Campaign from Jhang
city and it received support from the local madrassas as well as from the poor farmers, who
believed that they would get economic benefit. Furthermore, Haq Nawaz distributed pamphlets
of his organization throughout the country spreading sectarian violence. There were further
cashes of between Sunnis and Shias in KPK in 1987. Clearly sectarianism was on its peak and
interestingly ivduring his interview with Maliha Lodhi, “Husseini(who was declared the head of
Shias in 1984) blamed the US and Zia’s government for the Shia-Sunni conflicts.”

The religious organizations formed during Shia-Sunni conflicts caused trouble for Pakistan in
future as well. US as well as Pakistan disowned the jihadis sent in Afghanistan to fight. It created
a sense of hatred in the mind of those fighters. The consequences of that hatred were the attacks
on US on 11th September 2001. In 1996, an organization broke away from Sipah-e-Sahaba,
known as Lashkre Jhangvi. It was a terrorist an organization, whose aim was to convert Pakistan
into a Sunni state. It carried out terrorist attacks, mostly bombings, on mosque and religious
gatherings. So, it can be concluded that during his regime, Zia tried to strengthen his
government. He made many controversial policies which led to many issues in the society, most
importantly Shia-Sunni sectarianism, which is impacting the religious discrimination in today’s
Pakistan. Shias are not ready to accept the Sunnis and Sunnis are not ready to accept Shias. They
both called each other Non-Muslims and declare fatwas on each other. Most importantly, it is
disturbing the unity of Muslims around the world. This can be explained by an example that
Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, 3 major Muslim states cannot be on the same tract due to the
sectarianism in the society. Due to these reasons, Muslims are getting weaker day by day.

Blasphemy law

Blasphemy law was made part of law during the regime of Zia. It was one the most important
reason for the religious discrimination in the country. He introduced number of laws under
article 205 of the Pakistan penal code in favor of blasphemy law. Zia introduced article 205-C
which stated anyone who degrades the sacred name of the Holy Prophet (P.B.U.H) intentionally
or unintentionally in any form would be either prisoned or he will pay a fine or in worst scenario,
he will face death penalty. The national and international researchers condemned it. They believe
that it could be used as a tool for religious persecutions against the minorities. As expected, the
outcomes of the law were disastrous. There was a rapid increase in number of blasphemy cases
since 1986. Most of the blasphemy cases were false accusations for personal gains. The
minorities which got affected the most were Hindus, Christians, and specially the Ahmadian
community. Before the introduction of article 205-C he introduced articles 205-A and 205-B,
which mostly targeted Ahmadians. Section 209-A made it clear that Qadiyanis(term used for the
Ahmadian) were not allowed to practice Islam. They were banned from calling their place of
worship as mosque. They were banned from calling prayer or giving azan. Any person who
disobeyed the law was given 3 years imprisonment. Article 290-B was similar to the previous
one. It stated that any person from the Ahmadi group refers his faith as Islam or spread his
religion, he will be punished with imprisonment. During his regime, Ahmadis face deadly
violence by Islamist militant group and even the government legalized and encouraged the
persecution. Then, after the introduction of article 205-C, Ahmadians faced even more violence.
Their belief in the prophet hood of Mirza Ghulam Ahmed is considered blasphemy, so there
were hundreds of killing seen. Although, Ahmadis had faced hatred in previous years, but after
the introduction of these articles, they faced mass killings. Furthermore, according to separate
electorate(explained in the next section), Ahmadis had to register themselves as non-Muslims in
order vote. This was also unacceptable for them.
His introduction of blasphemy law in the Pakistan Penal Code often made Minorites feel
insecure that any moment someone can allege blasphemy on them, and they might lose their
lives. Many innocent people were killed for personal gain in name of Islam. In 2012, a
blasphemy case was registered against a Christian disabled girl under section 205-B. She was
proved guilty, despite the fact that she was disabled, and she was young girl. The one who
alleged had a motive to kick Christians out of that area, where the girl lived. This is just one
example out of hundreds that how minorities were treated after the introduction of blasphemy
law.

Policies that led to develop insecurity in minorities.

His policies modified the constitution in such a way that it developed a presidential form of
government. His policies led to the division of the society into Muslims and non-Muslims. He
used name of the religion in the constitution as a tool to achieve his political objectives. His
unconstitutional amendments deprived the Muslims, but also the non-Muslims in every aspect of
life: socially, politically, religiously, economically and even they were not given basic human
rights. In 1949, Liaquat Ali khan passed objective resolution, which ignored the rights of
minorities. During Zia’s regime in 1985, objective resolution developed into Pakistan
constitution, giving it more legal weight and making it easier for the laws, that contradict
religious freedom, to be promoted in the name of Islam. He even deleted the word “freely” from
the objective resolution. During his regime, little or no efforts were made to protect the rights of
minorities. To tell the public that he is trying to end descrimination in the society he introduced a
quota system, reserving 5 percent of the jobs for minorities. However, in reality, this system
never came into existence. In fact, it worsened the discrimination. The reserved 5 percent jobs
for the minorities were on unacceptable posts such as sanitation work. Furthermore, Zia
introduced a parallel legal system. It resulted in the creation of Shariat benches, and it declared
every law as unconstitutional which was disrespectful to Islam. The discriminatory educational
curriculum introduced by Zia, further made the minorities unsecured. the curriculum was based
on Islam, and no other religion was taught. In 1985, Zia reversed the universal voting rights and
introduced a system of sperate electorate. This system stated that non-Muslims have to register
themselves as separate category and vote for non-Muslim candidate. The system of separate
electorate was against the will of minorities, but still he implemented it. Minorities sometimes
find themselves treated as second class citizens.
As discussed earlier that Pakistan disowned the freedom fighters, who were sent to Afghanistan
for war in 1979. It created a hatred for Pakistan in their mind. This hatred let to the creation of
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. The organization carried out series of terrorist attacks, and the main
targets of this was organization were Pakistani government, military and unfortunately, they
targeted the religious minorities as well, despite the fact that they were not involve in any of the
things that happened in past. This led to create massive religious descrimination in the society.
i
Khaled Ahmed, ‚Second Opinion: ‘Ramay Sahib’: Punjabi with an Intellect – Khaled Ahmed’s Review of the Urdu Press,‛
Daily Times, 9 February 2006.
ii
Mariam Abou-Zahab, ‚The Politicization of the Shia Community in Pakistan in the 1970s and 1980s,‛ 101.
iii
4 See ‚Allama Mufti Jafar Hussain,‛ http://www.islam-laws.com/marja/muftijafar.htm. See also V.J. Schubel, Religious
Performance in Contemporary Islam: Shi’i Devotional Rituals in South Asia (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina
Press, 1993).
iv
Maleeha Lodhi, ‚Pakistan's Shia Movement: An Interview with Arif Hussaini,‛ Third World Quarterly [Vol. #10], [issue #2],
(1988), 806-17