17 August 1988

Agha Amin
August 17, 2008
Tags: Zia ul Haq , army , dictator , Pakistan
It was a hot summer day when a C 130 military transporter crashed almost right o
n the site of a pre 1947 Hindu Shamshan Ghat on the Sutlej River near Bahawalpur
. Pakistan’s political equation was transformed within flash of a second. General
Ziaul Haq’s jaundiced shadow was removed from Pakistan’s
body politics by divine design and tangible endeavour of some mortals!
When Zia was suddenly promoted the army chief in 1976 he was an unknown man in t
he army. With no war record and known for no professional brilliance , Zia was a
gift of the civilian prime minister Z.A Bhutto to the Pakistan Army. Late Maula
na Kausar Niazi found an American connection in this dark horse when he stated t
hat the US Ambassaor told the Maulana many days before his actual promotion that
a man called Zia may be the army chief.
Of humble background Zia did not see any action in any of Pakistan’s wars except h
aving been master mind of a dirty war of Jordan’s punitive action called Black Sep
tember against the Palestenians.His immediate superior Major General Nawazish fo
und him unsuitable to be a commissioned officer but he survived by sheer luck ,
begging General Gul Hassan to save him .The infamous arbitrary retirements of mo
re than 15 general officers by intrigue of General Gul Hassan and Z.A Bhutto in
December 1971 created an enormous gap in the army in Pakistan and this helped Zi
a in quick promotion to the rank of major general in 1972.A reliable army source
General Chishti states that while posted in Multan Zia practiced extreme sycoph
ancy cultivating PPP stalwarts like Sahibzada Faruq, Hamid Raza Gillani, Sadiq H
ussain Qureshi and Sajjad Hussain Qureshi.Chishti thought that the CIA may have
successfully cultivated Zia much earlier in 1950s when Zia attended a military c
ourse in USA.Brigadier Z.A Khan remembers him as selling eggs as a colonel in mi
d 60s in Multan.
Ironically the army never recommended Zia for promotion to the rank of COAS. Gen
eral Chishti then the Military Secretary and directly responsible for promotion
boards remembers that Zia was seventh in order of seniority in all lieutenant ge
nerals.The army chief Tikka did not even include Zia in the list of potential ca
ndidates and had recommended Lieutenant General Akbar Khan in an official letter
addressed to Mr Z.A Bhutto for the job. Lieutenant General Sharif the seniormos
t was not recommended by Tikka in this letter.Generals Aftab and Azmat Baksh Awa
n the second and fourth in seniority according to Chishti were regarded as unsui
table for lack of ability by Tikka. Lieutenant General Ghulam Jillani Khan sixth
in seniority and the then DG ISI was considered unsuitable for lack of formatio
n command experience. Lieutenant Generals Malik Abdul Majeed and Zia ul Haq sixt
h and seventh in seniority were not even considered by the army high command to
be even fit to be considered as they were newly promoted and had very little hig
her formation command experience.
Zia however had ingratiated himself to Z.A Bhutto by his extreme servility and s
ycophancy. General Gul Hassan in his memoirs ascribes Zia’s promotion to the fact
that he took insults,snubs, and other similar indignities from Bhutto,whome he r
egarded as his his creator with inborn grace !
General Zia’s tenure as army chief did not improve the Pakistan Army . Not at leas
t in the period 1981 to 1988 when I saw it as a cadet and officer.Pakistan was t
ransformed into a frontline state in the Soviet Afghan War not because of any re
ligious reasons but simply because Pakistan’s military junta lacked legitimacy and
 was isolated. Seeking US and Saudi assistance was its only way of survival . In
the process a dangerous affair with diasastorous consequences , which only beca
me evident in mid 1990s was started with religious extremism. Chaudhry Sardar Al
i then an Inspector General of police stated in an interview that Zia adopted dr
aconian Islamic laws like Hudood and Qisas just to please the Saudis and to get
financial aid.
A dubious partnership was created between an illegitimate military junta,US and
Saudi intelligence agencies and dubious banks like the Bank of Crooks and Cheats
(BCCI) of the the infamous Agha Hassan Abedi. Pakistan was converted into a bas
e for a so called Jihad to ensure Christian Anglo Saxon supremacy against Soviet
Russia with US and Saudi dollars.
The army became a one man organization with promotion and success for only those
officers who were in Zia’s good books. This anachronistic situation continued til
l 17 August 1988. Great preparations were made when Zia was comin to witness the
tank demonstration at Kandewala Ranges. Baba ice cream a special ice cream that
Zia loved was arranged from Multan. Special lotahs were bought for Zia and his
party’s ablution. Chefs were pooled in from various formations to prepare Zia’s lunc
h at Tamewali Rest House on 17 August 1988. Zia never had that lunch. His death
was fixed on the Hindu Shamshan Ghat at Basti Lal Kamal. An army chief who shoul
d never have been the chief in the first place and should have instutionally ret
ired by 1980 was finally terminated by divine design on 17 August 1988. The harm
that he inflicted on Pakistan purely motivated by his selfish policies to stay
in power lingers on and haunts Pakistan’s very existence today twenty years later
on 17th August 2008. Today thanks to Zia political leadership in Pakistan has be
en nearly destroyed and military talent is non existent.