From 1977 to 1988, Pakistan came under the shadow of General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq; a man whose rule did not merely govern but genetically altered the ideological, legal, religious, and institutional DNA of the state. Zia did not simply impose a dictatorship; he engineered a theocracy that continues to haunt Pakistan’s politics, society, and global identity.

1. Islamisation of Law: Replacing the Constitution with Dogma

Zia’s push to Islamise Pakistan’s legal system began with the infamous Hudood Ordinances in 1979. These included the Zina Ordinance, which conflated rape with adultery and the Qazf Ordinance, which criminalised false accusations of adultery. The punishments, stoning to death for adultery, amputation for theft, flogging for alcohol consumption, were to be enforced under Islamic standards of evidence, such as requiring four male adult Muslim witnesses to prove rape. This burden of proof meant that countless women who reported sexual assault were instead accused of adultery when they failed to produce witnesses.

One of the most harrowing examples was that of Safia Bibi, a blind teenage domestic worker who was raped by her employer in 1983. Unable to prove her case under the Hudood laws, she was convicted of zina (adultery) and sentenced to flogging, imprisonment, and a fine. Although public outcry eventually led to her acquittal, the case laid bare how the law punished victims more harshly than perpetrators. Women’s rights groups like the Women’s Action Forum (WAF) were formed in direct response to these laws, launching a fearless resistance movement that Zia’s regime tried to silence through intimidation, arrests, and censorship.

Zia also created the Federal Shariat Court (FSC) through a Presidential Order in 1980, giving it the power to strike down any law deemed “repugnant to Islam”. This undermined the supremacy of Parliament and shifted legal authority to unelected clerics and judges. In one of its early judgments, the FSC controversially called for public amputation of hands as punishment for theft, attracting condemnation from international human rights bodies including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

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The 1980 Zakat and Ushr Ordinance introduced mandatory Islamic taxation, deducting 2. 5% annually from bank savings accounts. It failed to account for sectarian jurisprudence, particularly Shia beliefs, triggering widespread protests. In May 1980, Shia protestors clashed with authorities in Parachinar and Gilgit, demanding exemption from the ordinance. Zia’s refusal to accommodate their religious interpretation sowed the seeds of future sectarian unrest.

As noted by Husain Haqqani in his book Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military, “Zia was not content with ruling the country he wanted to sanctify his dictatorship by merging the state with religious absolutism”.

In effect, what Zia imposed was not just legal reform but ideological replacement. He replaced a secular constitutional order with a theocratic framework that legalised gender inequality, undermined civil liberties, and institutionalised sectarian discrimination.

General Zia’s Islamisation campaign began with the introduction of the Hudood Ordinances in 1979, effectively replacing British-era penal codes with punishments such as stoning, amputation, and public flogging. These laws not only criminalise crimes, but they also criminalise bodies, particularly women’s, and establish moral policing as a state function. Rape survivors, unable to produce four male witnesses, often ended up imprisoned for adultery.

He established special religious courts and amended civil laws to suit conservative dogma. His religious tax system, imposed through banks, sidelined Shia jurisprudence and triggered violent protests, especially in Gilgit and Karachi.

As one European observer noted at the time, Zia wasn’t just tweaking the legal system, he was rewriting the soul of the Constitution.

2. Deobandi Ascendancy & Sectarian Engineering

Zia’s regime didn’t just lean into religious conservatism, it invested in it, quite literally. Between 1979 and 1988, the number of registered madrasas in Pakistan surged from approximately 893 to over 2, 800, with the majority affiliated with the Deobandi school of thought. Many of these were not only state-sanctioned but also state-funded, receiving government grants, land, and logistical support. Institutions like Darul Uloom Haqqania, known in later years as the “University of Jihad”, became ideological nurseries for future Taliban leaders and sectarian militants.

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According to Syed Soharwardy, a Canadian-Pakistani Sufi cleric, Zia’s policies transformed Pakistan’s religious institutions. “Before Zia, 90% of Pakistan Army’s mosques were influenced by Sufi teachings. By the late 1980s, over 85% were controlled by Deobandi clerics”. This seismic shift wasn’t incidental, it was systematic.

Clerics close to Zia were appointed to official policymaking bodies like the Council of Islamic Ideology and the Islamic Ideology Council, where they influenced laws, textbooks, and social policy. Simultaneously, groups like Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ); sectarian outfits with anti-Shia agendas gained legitimacy, funding, and protection under the state’s selective blindness.

A 2005 report by the International Crisis Group concluded that Zia’s regime institutionalised sectarian preference, where Deobandi madrasa networks became pathways not just for clerical authority but also for influence within intelligence and military institutions.

This was not a religious revival. It was a calculated re-engineering of Pakistan’s theological backbone, turning pluralism into polarity and faith into factionalism. The long-term cost has been devastating endless cycles of sectarian violence, mistrust between Muslim communities, and the radicalisation of state and society alike.

Zia’s regime openly favoured the Deobandi and Wahhabi strands of Islam. Institutions like Darul Uloom Haqqania flourished under his patronage, gaining infamy as breeding grounds for militant doctrine.

Even the military’s religious tone shifted. Sufi-influenced army mosques gave way to Deobandi control. Clerics close to Zia were embedded into policymaking bodies, while sectarian groups that had barely existed before the 1980s became power players. Sipah-e-Sahaba and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi didn’t just emerge, they were enabled.

This wasn’t a religious revival, it was sectarian re-engineering, with deadly consequences that still ripple today.

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3. Educational Indoctrination & Textbook Revisionism

Zia’s so-called curriculum reforms turned classrooms into ideological factories. Under directives issued by the Federal Ministry of Education and the University Grants Commission during his rule, textbooks were rewritten to glorify Islamic conquests, erase or marginalise non - Muslim figures, and embed anti-Hindu and anti-Western sentiments.

For example, a 1980s Social Studies textbook for Class V read: “The Muslims ruled the subcontinent for over a thousand years. The Hindus were jealous of their prosperity and conspired with the British to end Muslim rule”. Another textbook instructed students: “We should always be ready to fight a jihad to protect Pakistan and Islam”.

Even history was distorted. Contributions of pre-Islamic civilisations like the Indus Valley and figures like Raja Ranjit Singh were either downplayed or omitted altogether. The focus shifted from historical accuracy to ideological grooming. Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s vision of a secular Pakistan, as expressed in his 11 August 1947 speech, was deliberately excluded from curricula.

Minority children were quietly segregated through a subject called “Ethical Studies”, replacing Islamiat. It seemed innocent on the surface, but it branded non-Muslim students from the start, teaching them they didn’t belong. Many such children were pressured to study Islamiat to avoid bullying or exclusion.

This wasn’t education. It was early-stage radicalisation, disguised as moral instruction, an effort to produce loyal ideological foot soldiers rather than critical thinkers. The long-term impact continues to manifest in public discourse, where nuance and pluralism have been replaced by rigid binaries and suspicion of the ‘other’.

Zia’s so-called curriculum reforms turned classrooms into ideological factories. Textbooks glorified jihad, painted Hindus and Christians as enemies, and rewrote history to suit a militant Islamic narrative.

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