Zia ul Haq

Zia-ul-Haq was the sixth president and military ruler of Pakistan from 1978 until his death in 1988. He also served as the second Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistan Army from 1976 to 1988. He was born in Jalandhar, a small town in Punjab, India, to a Memon Muslim family. He graduated from the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun and served in the British Indian Army during the Second World War. He joined the Pakistan Army after the partition of India in 1947 and rose through the ranks to become a general. He played a key role in defending Jordan against the Palestinian Liberation Organization in 1970. In 1977, he staged a coup d'état against the elected government of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and imposed martial law in the country. He became the president of Pakistan in 1978 and initiated a process of Islamization of the state and society. He also supported the Afghan mujahideen against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and pursued the development of Pakistan's nuclear weapons. He held a referendum in 1984 and a general election in 1985 to legitimize his rule. He amended the constitution in 1985 to give himself more powers and to make the Islamic Sharia the supreme law of the land. He faced opposition from various political and religious groups, as well as from the United States, which pressured him to restore democracy and end the nuclear program. He died in a mysterious plane crash in 1988, along with several other senior officials and the US ambassador to Pakistan. His death remains a subject of controversy and speculation. He is widely regarded as a dictator and a controversial figure in Pakistan's history.