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Pakistan
PAKISTAN AND THE WORLD DURING THE ZIA REGIME
When Zia assumed power in mid-1977, Pakistan was out of the limelight
and indeed was considered by some observers to be a political
backwater. By the time of Zia's death in 1988, it had, because
of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, become an important
actor occupying a central position in the world arena.
Although Zulifqar Ali Bhutto had tried to redirect Pakistan's
regional orientation toward West Asia and Zia continued this trend,
the nation's geostrategic interests dictated a concentration on
South Asia. Pakistan's foreign policy was very much centered on
India. Less than two years after Zia's assumption of power, Congress,
led by Indira Gandhi, was voted out of office and replaced by
the Janata Party, whose foreign minister was Atal Behari Vajpayee
of the Jana Sangh, long seen as anti-Pakistan. Nonetheless, relations
between Pakistan and India may have reached their most cordial
level during the almost three years Janata was in power. Vajpayee
visited Pakistan in February 1978. There were exchanges on many
issues, and agreements were signed on trade, cultural exchanges,
and communications--but not on such key issues as Kashmir and
nuclear development.
The nuclear issue was of critical importance to both Pakistan
and India. In 1974 India successfully tested a nuclear "device."
Bhutto reacted strongly to this test and said Pakistan must develop
its own "Islamic bomb." Zia thus inherited a pledge that for domestic
reasons he could not discard, and he continued the development
program. He asked India to agree to several steps to end this
potential nuclear arms race on the subcontinent. One of these
measures was the simultaneous signing of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation
of Nuclear Weapons. The second step was a joint agreement for
inspection of all nuclear sites by the International Atomic Energy
Agency. Pakistan also proposed a pact between the two countries
to allow for mutual inspection of sites. And, finally, Pakistan
proposed a South Asian nuclear-free zone. It appeared that Zia
was looking for a way to terminate the costly Pakistani program.
But in order to sell this idea in Pakistan, he required some concessions
from India. Termination would also get him out of difficulties
the program was causing with the United States, including the
curtailment of aid in 1979. These proposals were still on the
table in the early 1990s, and were supplemented by then Prime
Minister Nawaz Sharif's call for a roundtable discussion among
Pakistan, India, the United States, Russia, and China on nuclear
weapons in South Asia (see The Armed Forces in a New World Order
, ch. 5).
Not all relations within South Asia were negative. President
Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh proposed an organization for South
Asian cooperation. Pakistan was at first reluctant, fearing Indian
domination, but eventually agreed to join the group, along with
Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. The
South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC--see Glossary)
was formally inaugurated at a summit meeting in Dhaka in 1985.
There have been some positive steps toward cooperation, and regular
rotating summits are held, although often with some delays.
Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi of India (1984-89) came to Islamabad
in 1988 to attend a SAARC summit, the first visit of an Indian
prime minister since 1960, when Nehru visited to sign the Indus
Waters Treaty. Zia stopped briefly in New Delhi in December 1985
and in February 1987 visited again, having invited himself to
see a cricket match between the two countries. Zia's estimation
was that he and Rajiv could meet quite cordially but could not
agree on substantive issues.
Active and potential conflict continued to be a constant factor
in Pakistan's relations with India. The dispute over the precise
demarcation of the Line of Control in Kashmir at the Siachen Glacier
heated up periodically and over time caused substantial casualties
on both sides because of numerous small skirmishes and the extreme
cold in the remote area. Also, in the 1986-87 winter the Indian
army conducted Operation Brass Tacks, maneuvers close to the Pakistan
border, and Pakistan mobilized its forces. However, the dangerous
situation was defused, and no hostilities took place. India accused
Pakistan of aiding Sikh insurgents in India's state of Punjab.
Pakistan denied this accusation, but some people thought that
Operation Brass Tacks might have been a means to strike at alleged
bases in Pakistan's Punjab Province. Zia skillfully handled the
diplomacy during the period of tension (see Pakistan Becomes a
Frontline State , ch. 5).
Zia continued the process, begun by Bhutto, of opening Pakistan
to the West and drew on Pakistan's Islamic, trade, and military
ties to the Middle East. Military ties included stationing Pakistani
troops in Saudi Arabia and training missions in several other
countries. Remittances from Pakistanis employed as migrant workers
in the Middle East, especially in the Persian Gulf area, increased
during the Zia years and became an important factor in Pakistan's
foreign-exchange holdings (see Labor , ch. 3).
Zia played a prominent role in the Organization of the Islamic
Conference (OIC). A Pakistani was secretary general of the OIC,
and Zia served on committees concerning the status of Jerusalem
and the settlement of the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88), neither of
which were successful. At the 1984 summit at Casablanca, he played
a key role in the readmission of Egypt to the OIC and, in doing
so, reminded his fellow heads of government that the organization
was one for the entire Muslim community and not only for Arab
states.
The United States under the administration of Jimmy Carter did
not welcome the displacement of Bhutto by Zia; representative
government, human rights, and nuclear nonproliferation were also
of concern to Carter. The execution of Bhutto only added to the
United States displeasure with Zia and Pakistan. In March 1979,
Pakistan--and Iran--terminated their membership in CENTO.
A number of United States laws, amendments to the Foreign Assistance
Act of 1961, applied to Pakistan and its program of nuclear weapons
development. The 1976 Symington Amendment stipulated that economic
assistance be terminated to any country that imported uranium
enrichment technology. The Glenn Amendment of 1977 similarly called
for an end to aid to countries that imported reprocessing technology--Pakistan
had from France. United States economic assistance, except for
food aid, was terminated under the Symington Amendment in April
1979. In 1985 the Solarz Amendment was added to prohibit aid to
countries that attempt to import nuclear commodities from the
United States. In the same year, the Pressler Amendment was passed;
referring specifically to Pakistan, it said that if that nation
possessed a nuclear device, aid would be suspended. Many of these
amendments could be waived if the president declared that it was
in the national interests of the United States to continue assistance.
The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in December 1979, causing
a sudden reversal of United States policy. Carter, who had described
Pakistan as a "frontline state" in the Cold War, offered US$400
million in military and economic aid to Pakistan-- an amount that
Zia spurned and contemptuously termed "peanuts." When the Ronald
Reagan administration took office in January 1981, the level of
assistance increased substantially. Presidential waivers for several
of the amendments were required. The initial package from the
United States was for US$3.2 billion over six years, equally divided
between economic and military assistance. A separate arrangement
was made for the purchase of forty F-16 fighter aircraft. In 1986
a follow-on program of assistance over a further period of six
years was announced at a total of more than US$4 billion, of which
57 percent was economic aid and the rest military aid.
The Soviet Union, meanwhile, under its new leader, Mikhail S.
Gorbachev, was reassessing its role in Afghanistan. Indirect "proximity"
negotiations in Geneva under the auspices of the UN were going
on between Afghanistan and Pakistan with the United States and
the Soviet Union as observers. In April 1988, a series of agreements
were signed among the United States, the Soviet Union, Pakistan,
and Afghanistan that called for the withdrawal of Soviet forces
by mid-February 1989. The withdrawal was completed on time.
Throughout the years of Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, relations
between the United States and Pakistan were best characterized
by close cooperation. Still, United States policy makers became
increasingly concerned that Zia and his associates- -most notably,
General Akhtar Abdur Rahman, then head of the Directorate for
Inter-Services Intelligence--appeared to give preferential treatment
to the Islamic fundamentalists, especially mujahidin
leader Gulbaddin Hikmatyar. Other disagreements persisted, particularly
over the failure of the Zia regime to convert to representative
government. Documented Pakistani violations of human rights were
another major issue; Pakistani involvement in narcotics trafficking
was yet another. But the issue that after Zia's death led to another
cutoff of aid was Pakistan's persistent drive toward nuclear development.
The event of the Zia period brought Pakistan to a leading position
in world affairs. However, Pakistan's new visibility was closely
connected to the supportive role it played for the anti- Soviet
mujahidin in Afghanistan--and this deceased when the
Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan. In the 1990s, Pakistan
faced some major domestic problems--mounting ethnic and sectarian
strife as well as widespread civil disorder. Pakistan will need
to address these problems as it strives to improve its international
standing as a maturing democratic nation and one aspiring to be
the industrial and technological leader of the Muslim world.
* * *
For the study of the area of present-day Pakistan in the preindependence
period, one must generally look to histories of India. The most
recent survey is Stanley Wolpert's A New History of India.
Published earlier, Percival Spear's A History of India
(volume 1) and Romila Thapar's A History of India (volume
2) provide valuable information. Vincent Arthur Smith's The
Oxford History of India gives a detailed account of the preindependence
period. Two dictionaries that are difficult to obtain are helpful
in looking up specific places and people: Sachchidananda Bhattacharya's
A Dictionary of Indian History and Parshotam Mehra's
A Dictionary of Modern Indian History, 1707-1947. Particularly
valuable is the monumental A Historical Atlas of South Asia,
edited by Joseph E. Schwartzberg. Two classic works on the Mughal
period are Bamber Gascoigne's The Great Moghuls and Percival
Spear's Twilight of the Mughals. A more recent, standard
work on the Mughals is John F. Richards's The Mughal Empire.
Books that bring the Muslim movement alive include Peter Hardy's
The Muslims of British India; Choudhry Khaliquzzaman's
Pathway to Pakistan; Chaudri Muhammad Ali's The Emergence
of Pakistan; Gail Minault's The Khilafat Movement;
David Lelyveld's Aligarh's First Generation; and R.J.
Moore's The Crisis of Indian Unity, 1917-1940. There
is little biographic material except on Jinnah: the best are Stanley
Wolpert's Jinnah of Pakistan and Ayesha Jalal's The
Sole Spokesman.
Concerning independent Pakistan during the parliamentary period,
Keith Callard's Pakistan: A Political Study and Richard
S. Wheeler's The Politics of Pakistan are recommended.
On Ayub Khan, Lawrence Ziring's The Ayub Khan Era is
good. Bangladesh: A Country Study, edited by James Heitzman
and Robert L. Worden, provides an analysis of the history of the
East Wing of Pakistan (1947-71). The civil war is discussed in
Craig Baxter's Bangladesh: A New Nation in an Old Setting.
Bhutto's tenure is described in Shahid Javed Burki's Pakistan
under Bhutto, 1971-1977 and Stanley Wolpert's Zulfi Bhutto
of Pakistan: His Life and Times. Zia ul-Haq's period is discussed
in Shahid Javed Burki and Craig Baxter's Pakistan under the
Military: Eleven Years of Zia ul-Haq. (For further information
and complete citations, see Bibliography.)
Data as of April 1994
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