From Jinnah to Zia

Muhammad Munir (Chief Justice of Pak)

1979 published

General Zia ul haq had remarked that his sole aim was to organize free and fair elections, and that
elections would be held on October 1977, but there was no sign of elections because of the following
reasons;

First the banning of Political parties' activities, requiring them to register themselves· and, to render
accounts of their funds, failing which they rendered themselves liable to disqualification ; and the
promulgation of Shariat Benches and other Islamic Laws in exercise of the powers which, according to
the General were given to him by the judgment of the Supreme Court.

Secondly, three events of great importance have since occurred: {1) The occupation of the Kaba (2) the
burning of the American Embassy at Islamabad and the attempt to burn the American Consulate at'
Lahore, and (3) "The occupation of Afghanistan by Russia.

Mr. Muhammad Ali, the leader of the new Assembly, prepared the first Constitution of Pakistan, and
became the first Prime Minister under the new Constitution. In the new Constitution, the State was
named the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. He also appointed a Commission to bring the laws in conformity
with the injunctions as set out in the Quran and Sunnah, to be given Legislative effect -by the National
Assembly; but the Assembly was not bound to do so. Mr. Muhammad Ali's Prime Ministership lasted
from August 11, 19.55 to September 13, 1956.

Bhutto near the end of his rule, he passed a prohibition Act, banned gambling and races and declared
Friday to be the weekly holiday. By an amendment of, the Constitution he' declared Ahmadis to be a
non-Muslim minority. All this was done with a political motive to, gain support from or, be popular with
the people.

General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq is a firm believer in Islam, but he is not a theologian. He took four
parties of PNA in his cabinet, and while they were there, at their instance he promulgated some
measures which he understood to be Islamic. But some of them are contrary to the plain terms of the
Quran e.g, his prohibition Ordinance which punishes possession, consumption etc. of all spirituous
liquors, is against the Hanafi belief, based on Quranic injunctions, provided they are drunk in a moderate
quantity or as medicine.

He has punished adultery by stoning to death whereas the Quran prescribes 100 stripes for the offence
of adultery (Surat-ul-Nur, xxiv, verse 2). He has also prescribed punishment for theft as the amputation
of right hand from the elbow which is again contrary to Quran, as verse 38 of Surat-ul-Maidah is
qualified by the next succeeding verse 39 which says "but whoso repent after his wrong doing and
amendeth, Lo Allah will relent towards him. Lo Allah is Forgiving, Merciful."

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, dubbed by the Ulema as a heretic, was the first post-Mutiny thinker to realize this
pathetic condition of the Muslims. He attributed this condition· to three causes: (1) the superstitious
beliefs· and practices that had entered Indian Islam (2) lack of emphasis on the assimilative .and
universal character of Islam and (3) the aversion of the Muslims to Western education. Against the
opposition of the Ulema he established the Anglo Muhammadan College · at Aligarh; the nucleus of the
Muslim University of Aligarh, which created a new Muslim generation who believed in Islam and also
favored modern trends.

The Indian Independence Act had created two independent dominium and provided that for the
purposes of the Government of each dominion the Crown would appoint a Governor-General who
would also have the power to give assent to the legislation of each Dominion. One of these Dominions
was to be named Pakistan. Each dominion had the power to secede from the Commonwealth by a
properly assented Bill by the Governor-General. Mr. M.A. Jinnah became the first Governor-General of
Pakistan.

Manu, the great Hindu Law-giver, had introduced the caste system, dividing Hindu society into two
distinct classes (1) the favored twice born (dojanama) comprising the Brahmans, the Kashatriya and the
Vaishas; and (2) the low caste Sudras who were untouchable and had to do every kind of merilal work.
Though now un-touchability has been banned by law and Gandhi mostly lived among the untouchables,
naming them as Harijans, the caste distinctions still exist. The Muslims who settled in India hated such
distinctions; they believed in equality, irrespective of birth, country of origin, race, creed or complexion.

Ideology means the science dealing with the beliefs, notions and theories growing out of fundamental
assumptions held by the members of a group; sometimes the member makes a conscious effort to
acquire the right kind of idea; more often he accepts them unconsciously.

In response to no associating ideology to education. To take an example, it used to be a Christian dogma

for centuries that the centre of the planetary system is earth ... Copernicus showed that the centre of
that system is not the earth but the sun, and that the earth revolves round the sun. Galileo further
illustrated this theory, but for this he was placed before an Inquisition tribunal for having propounded a
theory which was opposed to the Christian ideology. Similarly the Christian belief used to be that the
age of the creation of man is 4,004 years before Christ but Darwin and other scientists exploded this
theory by scientific experiments by which, it was shown that homo-sapiens (man) inhabited the earth
some 35,000 years ago. Now it has been found that man lived back half a million years; in the time of
"Peking man''.
If there had been no cross-migration and indiscriminate slaughter and the non-Mus1ims had stayed on
in West Pakistan they would have had a percentage of 30, and there would have been no question of
making them inferior citizens in a religious state. This view was supported by no less a person than
Maulana Abul Ala Maududi. In the "Tarjuman-ul-Quran" of February 1946 he had opposed Pakistan on
the ground that if it was established it will be a secular state and not an Islamic State. In the course of
the inquiry into the Punjab Disturbances of 1953 he was questioned on this point.