On the morning of 5 July 1977, General Zia-ul-Haq imposed martial law in Pakistan. The tanks rolled in with the usual promises: to save the country, to cleanse politics, to restore order. Many Pakistanis — including the educated and urbane — breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, someone had come to “fix” things.

Zia-ul-Haq’s imposition of martial law marked the beginning of one of the darkest chapters in Pakistan’s history. His damage to the country extended far beyond politics and culture; it was existential. After toppling an elected government, Zia launched a campaign of politically motivated, shallow, and hypocritical Islamisation. His regressive policies were not rooted in faith but in power — a calculated strategy to entrench his rule. In doing so, he deliberately fuelled sectarian and ethnic divisions, weaponising identity to divide and dominate through a ruthless policy of divide and rule.

The consequences were catastrophic. Pakistan, once a young nation with aspirations to join the ranks of modernising states like South Korea, was recast on the global stage as an extremist, jihad-exporting country, increasingly hyphenated with a war-torn Afghanistan and defined by militancy rather than progress. And it was all done in the name of political survival — with the backing of Cold War allies like the United States, whose support came at the cost of Pakistan’s soul.

Zia’s actions tore apart the fragile social fabric of a nation still struggling to forge its identity. In a country as diverse as Pakistan, his policies didn’t merely polarise — they fractured the very foundations of unity, undermining the possibility of a cohesive, inclusive national future at a moment when it was needed most.

The moment of Zia’s imposition of military rule — like so many before and after — also reflected something deeper than a simple military coup. It was yet another chapter in a long history of yearning: the desperate search for a saviour, a messiah, a strongman who could rescue Pakistan from its own dysfunction. This instinct, this recurring impulse to look upward instead of inward, has defined Pakistan’s political culture since before the nation was even born.

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After 1947, Pakistan inherited not just territory but a paternalistic political imagination rooted in the belief that people needed someone, not something, to lead........

© The Friday Times