title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: Zia was commissioned in the British Indian Army in the Guides Cavalry on 12 May 1943 after graduating from the Officer Training School Mhow and fought against Japanese forces in Burma in World War II. After Pakistan was created following the Partition of India in 1947, Zia joined the newly formed Pakistan Army as a Major in the Guides Cavalry Frontier Force Regiment. He also served in 13th Lancers and 6 Lancers. He was trained in the United States during 1962–1964 at the US Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. After that, he returned to take over as Directing Staff (DS) at Command and Staff College, Quetta. During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, Zia is said to have been the Assistant Quartermaster of the 101st Infantry Brigade.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: Brigadier Zia was stationed in Jordan from 1967 to 1970 as the head of a Pakistani training mission to Jordan. Zia-ul-Haq became involved on the Jordanian side of the military conflict against Palestinians known as Black September. Zia had been stationed in Amman for three years prior to Black September. During the events, according to CIA official Jack O'Connell, Zia was dispatched north by King Hussein to assess Syria's military capabilities. The Pakistani commander reported back to Hussein, recommending the deployment of a RJAF squadron to the region. Zia-ul-Haq then went on to plan the Jordanian offensive against the Palestinians and commanded an armoured division against them. O'Connell also reported that Zia personally led Jordanian troops during battles.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: According to the testimonies provided by Major-General A.O. Mitha, it was the Army Chief of General Staff, Lieutenant


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: General Gul Hasan's lobbying at the Army GHQ which also saved then Brigadier Zia-ul-Haq from being terminated. Brigadier Zia had been recommended to be court-martialled by Major-General Nawazish in his submission to President Yahya Khan for disobeying GHQ orders by commanding a Jordanian armoured division against the Palestinians, as part of actions during Black September in which thousands were killed. It was Gul Hasan who interceded for Zia after which Army Chief General Yahya Khan let Zia off the hook.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: He was then promoted as Lieutenant General and was appointed commander of the "II Strike Corps" at Multan in 1975. On 1 March 1976, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto approved then-three star rank general Lieutenant-General Zia as Chief of Army Staff and to be elevated to four-star rank.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: At the time of his nominating the successor to the outgoing Chief of Army Staff General Tikka Khan, the Lieutenant Generals in order of seniority were: Muhammad Shariff, Akbar Khan, Aftab Ahmed, Azmat Baksh Awan, Ibrahim Akram, Abdul Majeed Malik, Ghulam Jilani Khan, and Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. But, Bhutto chose the most junior, superseding seven more senior lieutenant-generals. However, the senior most at that time, Lieutenant-General Mohammad Shariff, though promoted to General, was made the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, a constitutional post akin to President Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: Husain Haqqani argues that Bhutto chose Zia ahead of many senior officers for ethnic and caste reasons, thinking than an Arain would not make alliance with the predominantly Pashtun and Rajput military officers in order to overthrow him, and this is also the reason why he let Zia push for more Islam in the armed forces, like when he changed the army's credo to “Iman, Taqwa, Jihad fi Sabil Allah” or when he offered books of Mawdudi to his officers as prizes during various competitions, despite the strong ideological antagonism between Bhutto and the Islamist thinker.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: Prime Minister Bhutto began facing considerable criticism and increasing unpopularity as his term progressed; the democratic socialists alliance who had previously allied with Bhutto began to diminish as time progressed. Initially targeting leader of the opposition Vali Khan and his opposition National Awami Party (NAP), also a socialist party. Despite the ideological similarity of the two parties, the clash of egos both inside and outside the National Assembly became increasingly fierce, starting with the Federal governments decision to oust the NAP provincial government in Balochistan Province for alleged secessionist activities and culminating in the banning of the party and arrest of much of its leadership after the death of a close lieutenant of Bhutto's, Hayat Sherpao, in a bomb blast in the frontier town of Peshawar.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: Dissidence also increased within the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), and the murder of leading dissident Ahmed Raza Kasuri's father led to public outrage and intra-party hostility as Bhutto was accused of masterminding the crime. PPP leaders such as Ghulam Mustafa Khar openly condemned Bhutto and called for protests against his regime. The political crisis in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) and Balochistan intensified as civil liberties remained suspended, and an estimated 100,000 troops deployed there were accused of abusing human rights and killing large numbers of civilians.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: On 8 January 1977, a large number of opposition political parties grouped to form the Pakistan National Alliance (PNA). Bhutto called fresh elections, and PNA participated fully in those elections. They managed to contest the elections jointly even though there were grave splits on opinions and views within the party. The PNA faced defeat but did not accept the results, alleging that the election was rigged. They proceeded to boycott the provincial elections. Despite this, there was a high voter turnout in the national elections; however, as provincial elections were held amidst low voter turnout and an opposition boycott, the PNA declared the newly elected Bhutto government as illegitimate.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: Soon, all the opposition leaders called for the overthrow of Bhutto's regime. Political and civil disorder intensified, which led to more unrest. On 21 April 1977, Bhutto imposed martial law in the major cities of Karachi, Lahore and Hyderabad. However, a compromise agreement between Bhutto and opposition was ultimately reported. Zia planned the Coup d'état carefully, as he knew Bhutto had integral intelligence in the Pakistan Armed Forces, and many officers, including Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal Zulfiqar Ali Khan and Major-General Tajammul Hussain Malik, GOC of 23rd Mountain Division, Major-General Naseerullah Babar, DG of Directorate-General for the Military Intelligence (DGMI) and Vice-Admiral Syed Mohammad Ahsan, were loyal to Bhutto.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: The coup, (called "Operation Fair Play") transpired in the small hours of 5 July 1977. Before the announcement of any agreement, Bhutto and members of his cabinet were arrested by troops of Military Police under the order of Zia. Bhutto tried to call Zia but all telephone lines were disconnected. When Zia spoke to him later, he reportedly told Bhutto that he was sorry that he had been forced to perform such an "unpleasant task".


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: Zia and his military government portrayed the coup as a "spontaneous response to a difficult situation", but his response was a complete contradiction. Soon after the coup, Zia told the British journalist Edward Behr of "Newsweek":


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: However, Zia's Chief of Army Staff General Khalid Mahmud Arif contradicted Zia's statement when Arif noted that the coup had already been planned, and the senior leadership of Pakistan Armed Forces had solid information. Therefore, Arif met with Bhutto on an emergency basis, stressing and urging Bhutto to "rush negotiations with the opposition". By Arif's and independent expert's accounts, the talks had not broken down even though the coup was very much in the offing. Zia further argued that "Fair Play" against Bhutto had been necessitated by the prospect of a civil war that Bhutto had been planning, by distributing weapons to his supporters. However, Arif strongly rejected Zia's remarks on Bhutto, and citing no evidence that weapons were found or recovered at any of the party's election offices, the military junta did not prosecute Bhutto on the charge of planning civil war.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: Immediately, the Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Mohammad Shariff announced his and the navy's strong support for Zia and his military government. But, the Chief of Air Staff General Zulfikar Ali Khan remains unsupported while the Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Muhammad Shariff remains neutral, while he silently expressed his support to Prime minister Zulfikar Bhutto. In 1978, Zia pressured President Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry to appoint General Anwar Shamim as Chief of Air Staff; and Admiral Karamat Rahman Niazi as Chief of Naval Staff in 1979. On Zia's recommendation, President Illahi appointed Admiral Mohammad Shariff as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, hence making the Admiral the highest-ranking officer and principal military adviser overlooking all of the inter-services, including the Chiefs of Staff of the respected forces. In 1979, the Chiefs of Army, Navy, and the Air Force, including the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff validated the coup as constitutional and legal under the war-torn circumstances, pledging their support to Zia as well.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: The United States, notably the Reagan Administration, was an ardent supporter of Zia's military regime and a close ally of Pakistan's conservative-leaning ruling military establishment. The Reagan administration declared Zia's regime as the "front line" ally of the United States in the fight against the threat of Communism. American legislators and senior officials most notable were Zbigniew Brzezinski, Henry Kissinger, Charlie Wilson, Joanne Herring, and the civilian intelligence officers Michael Pillsbury and Gust Avrakotos, and senior US military officials General John William Vessey, and General Herbert M. Wassom, had been long associated with the Zia military regime where they had made frequent trips to Pakistan advising on expanding the idea of establishment in the political circle of Pakistan. Nominally, the American conservatism of Ronald Reagan's Republican Party influenced Zia to adopt his idea of Islamic conservatism as the primary line of his military government, forcefully enforcing the Islamic and other religious practices in the country.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: The socialist orientation had greatly alarmed the capitalist forces in Pakistan and as well as brought a clinging bell tolls alarm to the United States who feared the loss of Pakistan as an ally in the cold war. Many of Pakistan's political scientists and historians widely suspected that the riots and coup against Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was orchestrated with help of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the United States Government because United States growing fear of Bhutto's socialist policies which were seen as sympathetic towards the Soviet Union and had built a bridge that allowed Soviet Union to be involved in Pakistan, and had access through Pakistan's warm water port; something that the United States was unable to gain access since the establishment of Pakistan in 1947. Former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark widely suspected the United States' involvement in bringing down the Bhutto's government, and publicly accused the United States' Government after attending the trial. On the other hand, the United States refused any involvement in Bhutto's fall, and argued that it was Bhutto who had alienated himself over the five years. While witnessing the dramatic fall of Bhutto, one US diplomat in American Embassy in Islamabad wrote that:


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: After assuming power as Chief Martial Law Administrator, Zia shortly appeared on national television, PTV promising to hold new and neutral parliamentary elections within the next 90 days


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: My sole aim is to organize free and fair elections which would be held in October this year. Soon after the polls, power will be transferred to the elected representatives of the people. I give a solemn assurance that I will not deviate from this schedule.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: He also stated that the Constitution of Pakistan had not been abrogated, but temporarily suspended. Zia did not trust the civilian institutions and legislators to ensure the country's integrity and sovereignty therefore, in October 1977, he announced the postponement of the electoral plan and decided to start an accountability process for the politicians. On television, Zia strongly defended his decision for postponing the elections and demanded that "scrutiny of political leaders who had engaged in malpractice in the past". Thus, the PNA adopted its policy of "retribution first, elections later". Zia's policy severely tainted his credibility as many saw the broken promise as malicious. Another motive was that Zia widely suspected that once out of power the size of the Pakistan Peoples Party rallies would swell and better performance in elections was possible. This led to request for postponement of elections by the right-wing Islamists as well as left-wing socialists, formerly allied with Bhutto, which displaced Bhutto in the first place. Zia dispatched an intelligence unit, known as "ISI's" Political Wing, sending Brigadier-General Taffazul Hussain Siddiqiui, to Bhutto's native Province, Sindh, to assess whether people would accept martial law. The "Political Wing" also contacted the several right-wing Islamists and conservatives, promising an election, with PNA power-sharing the government with Zia. Zia successfully divided and separated the secular forces from right-wing Islamists and conservatives, and later purged each member of the secular front.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: A Disqualification Tribunal was formed, and several individuals who had been members of parliament were charged with malpractice and disqualified from participating in politics at any level for the next seven years. A white paper document was issued, incriminating the deposed Bhutto government on several counts.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: It is reported by senior officers that when Zia met federal secretaries for the first time as leader of the country after martial law, he said that "He does not possess the charisma of Bhutto, personality of Ayub Khan or the legitimacy of Liaquat Ali Khan" thereby implying how can he be marketed.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: After deposing Prime Minister Bhutto on 5 July 1977, Zia-ul-Haq declared martial law, and appointed himself Chief Martial Law Administrator, which he remained until becoming president on 16 September 1978.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: Nusrat Bhutto, the wife of the deposed Prime Minister, filed a suit against Zia's military regime, challenging the validity of the July 1977 military coup. The Supreme Court of Pakistan ruled, in what would later be known as the "Doctrine of Necessity" (not to be confused with the 1954 doctrine of necessity) that, given the dangerously unstable political situation of the time, Zia's overthrowing of the Bhutto government was legal on the grounds of necessity. The judgement tightened the general's hold on the government. When Bhutto appeared personally to argue his appeal in the supreme court, he almost affirmed his concurrence with the judges present for not letting off a judgement without imposing some conditions on ruling military government.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: Former elected Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was arrested during the coup but released shortly afterwards. Upon his release, Bhutto travelled the country amid adulatory crowds of PPP supporters. On 3 September 1977, he was arrested again by the Army on charges of authorising the murder of a political opponent in March 1974. The trial proceedings began 24 October 1977 and lasted five months.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: In the words of Aftab Kazie and Roedad Khan, Zia hated Bhutto and had used inappropriate language and insults to describe Bhutto and his colleagues. The Supreme Court ruled four to three in favour of execution. The High Court had given him the death sentence on charges of the murder of the father of Ahmed Raza Kasuri, a dissident PPP politician. Despite many clemency appeals from foreign leaders requesting Zia to commute Bhutto's death sentence, Zia dismissed the appeals and upheld the death sentence.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: On 4 April 1979, Bhutto was hanged, after the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence as passed by the Lahore High Court.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: The hanging of an elected prime minister by a military dictator was condemned by the international community and by lawyers and jurists across Pakistan. Bhutto's trial was highly controversial.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: The "Ad hoc" appointments of senior justices at the Supreme Court of Pakistan was one of the earliest and major steps were taken out by the military government under General Zia-ul-Haq. Zia had recognised the fact that since, Bhutto had good equations with the governments of the Soviet Union, China, and all the important western countries, excluding the United States. Still, it was a formidable array of sovereigns, presidents and prime ministers and the PPP can be forgiven for making a massive political miscalculations.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: After calling for martial law, Zia pressured President Fazal Illahi to appoint Justice Sheikh Anwarul Haq to Chief Justice of Pakistan on 23 September 1977. Immediately, chief justice Yaqub Ali was forcefully removed from the office after the latter agreed to re-hear the petition filed at the supreme court by the peoples party's chairwoman Nusrat Bhutto on 20 September 1977. After Justice Yaqub Ali's removal, Bhutto objected to the inclusion of the new Chief Justice, Sheikh Anwar-ul-Haq, as a chief justice of the Bench on the grounds that by accepting the office of acting president during the absence of Zia-ul-Haq from the country, he had compromised his impartial status. Bhutto also stated that the Chief Justice in his public statements had been critical of his government in the recent past.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: The objection was over-ruled by the Chief Justice Anwarul Haq, and the case of Bhutto was again heard by the Chief Justice Anwar-ul-Haq as the bench's lead judge, and presided the whole case of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto while forcing the martial law throughout Pakistan. Shortly, after Zia's return, another judge Mushtak Ahmad also gained Zia and Anwar-ul-Haq's support and elevated as the "ad hoc" Chief Justice of Lahore High Court; he was too part of the bench who retained the death sentence of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto even though Bhutto was not declared guilty of the murder of the political opponent. In 1979, when Zia departed for Saudi Arabia, Justice Haq served as interim president of Pakistan.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: The Zia regime largely made use of installing high-profile military generals to carte blanche provincial administration under martial law. Zia's Guides Cavalry comrade Lieutenant-General Fazhle Haque was appointed Martial Law Administrator of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province. Lieutenant-General Fazle Haque was considered a strong vocal General and a strong man. General Haque was the commander of the XI Corps, and commanding-general officer of the Army elements responsible for fighting a secret war against Soviet Union.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: The second appointment was of Lieutenant-General S.M. Abbasi who was appointed Martial Law Administrator of Sindh Province; his tenure too saw civil disorder amid student riots. By contrast, third martial law administrator appointment of Lieutenant-General Ghulam Jilani Khan to the Punjab Province made much headway in beautifying Lahore extending infrastructure, and muting political opposition. The ascent of Nawaz Sharif to Chief Minister of Punjab was largely due to General Jilani's sponsorship. Perhaps most crucially, final and fourth martial law administrator appointment was then-Lieutenant-General Rahimuddin Khan. Lieutenant-General Rahimuddin Khan was appointed to the post of Martial Law Administrator of Balochistan Province saw the disbanding of the Baloch insurgency, the containment of Afghan Mujahideen, as well as the construction of nuclear test sites in the Chagai District.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: Zia's tenure saw the influx of heroin, sophisticated weaponry, and countless refugees in from neighbouring Afghanistan. Law and order deterioration was worse after he appointed Mr. Junejo as Prime minister in 1985. The government did not locate evidence of Zia having a relationship in the heroin trade, but has been considered.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: Zia benefited from the extremely capable martial law administrators who previously had worked with the military governments of former president Yahya Khan and Ayub Khan in the 1960s. One of the notable officers that had worked with him were General Khalid Arief, Chief of Army Staff, and Admiral Mohammad Shariff, Chairman Joint Chiefs. Both were noted by Western governments as highly capable and had wide experience from the military government of the East-Pakistan and remained General Zia' confidential members.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: Both Admiral Sharif and General Arif handled the matters efficiently if the matters were out of control by Zia. In 1979, Zia influenced the Navy's Promotion Board several times after he succeeded first in the appointment of Admiral Caramatt Nazi as Chief of Naval Staff in 1979, and Admiral Tarik Kamal Khan, also chief of naval staff, in 1983. On his request, then-President Fazal Illahi approved the appointment of General Anwar Shamim as Chief of Air Staff and following President's resignation, Zia appointed Shamim as the Deputy Chief Martial Law Administrator. In the matters of serious national security, General Zia had taken the chief of air staff and chief of naval staff in confidence after he discussed the matters with the respected chiefs of Staff. Zia's appointment in inter-services were highly crucial for his military government and pre-emptive measure to ensure the continuous loyalty of Navy and Air Force to himself and his new military government.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: Despite the dismissal of most of the Bhutto government, President Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry was persuaded to continue in office as a figurehead. After completing his term, and despite Zia's insistence to accept an extension as President, Chaudhry resigned, and Zia took the office of President of Pakistan on 16 September 1978.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: Although ostensibly only holding office until free elections could be held, General Zia, like the previous military governments, disapproved of the lack of discipline and orderliness that often accompanies multiparty "parliamentary democracy." He preferred a "presidential" form of government and a system of decision making by technical experts, or "technocracy". His first replacement for the parliament or National Assembly was a "Majlis-e-Shoora", or "consultative council." After banning all political parties in 1979 he disbanded Parliament and at the end of 1981 set up the majlis, which was to act as a sort of board of advisors to the President and assist with the process of Islamization. The 350 members of the "Shoora" were to be nominated by the President and possessed only the power to consult with him, and in reality served only to endorse decisions already taken by the government. Most members of the "Shoora" were intellectuals, scholars, ulema, journalists, economists, and professionals in different fields.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: Zia's parliament and his military government reflect the idea of "military-bureaucratic technocracy" (MBT) where professionals, engineers, and high-profile military officers were initially part of his military government. His antipathy for the politicians led the promotion of bureaucratic-technocracy which was seen a strong weapon of countering the politicians and their political strongholds. Senior statesman and technocrats were included physicist-turned diplomat Agha Shahi, jurist Sharifuddin Perzada, corporate leader Nawaz Sharif, economist Mahbub ul Haq, and senior statesman Aftab Kazie, Roedad Khan, and chemist-turned diplomat Ghulam Ishaq Khan were a few of the leading technocratic figures in his military government.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: After Bhutto's execution, momentum to hold elections began to mount both internationally and within Pakistan. But before handing over power to elected representatives, Zia-ul-Haq attempted to secure his position as the head of state. A referendum was held on 19 December 1984 with the option being to elect or reject the General as the future President, the wording of the referendum making a vote against Zia appear to be a vote against Islam. According to official figures 97.8% of votes were cast in favour of Zia, however only 20% of the electorate participated in the referendum.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: After holding the 1984 referendum, Zia succumbed to international pressure and gave permission to election commission to hold national wide general elections but without political parties in February 1985. Most of the major opposing political parties decided to boycott the elections but election results showed that many victors belonged to one party or the other. Critics complained that ethnic and sectarian mobilisation filled the void left by banning political parties (or making elections "non-partisan"), to the detriment of national integration.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: The General worked to give himself the power to dismiss the Prime Minister dissolve the National Assembly, appoint provincial governors and the chief of the armed forces. His prime minister Muhammad Khan Junejo was known as a unassuming and soft-spoken Sindhi.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: Before handing over the power to the new government and lifting the martial law, Zia got the new legislature to retroactively accept all of Zia's actions of the past eight years, including his coup of 1977. He also managed to get several amendments passed, most notably the Eighth Amendment, which granted ""reserve power"s" to the president to dissolve the Parliament. However, this amendment considerably reduced the power he'd previously granted himself to dissolve the legislature, at least on paper. The text of the amendment permitted Zia to dissolve the Parliament only if the government had been toppled by a vote of no confidence and it was obvious that no one could form a government or the government could not function in a constitutional manner.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: In general Zia gave economic development and policy a fairly low priority (aside from Islamization) and delegating its management to technocrats such as Ghulam Ishaq Khan, Aftab Qazi and Vaseem Jaffrey.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: By the time General Zia had initiated the coup against Prime Minister Zulfikar Bhutto, the economic cycle process of nationalisation program was completed. The socialist orientation and nationalisation program was slowly reversed; the idea of corporatisation was heavily favoured by President Zia-ul-Haq to direct the authoritarianism in the nationalised industries. One of his well-known and earliest initiatives were aimed to Islamize the national economy which featured the Interest-free economic cycle. No actions towards privatising the industries were ordered by President Zia; only three steel mill industries were returned to its previous owners.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: By the end of 1987, the finance ministry had begun studying the process of engaging the gradual privatisation and economic liberalisation.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: On 25 December 1979, the Soviet Union (USSR) intervened in Afghanistan. Following this invasion, Zia chaired a meeting and was asked by several cabinet members to refrain from interfering in the war, owing to the vastly superior military power of the USSR. Zia, however, was ideologically opposed to the idea of communism taking over a neighbouring country, supported by the fear of Soviet advancement into Pakistan, particularly Balochistan, in search of warm waters, and made no secret about his intentions of monetarily and militarily aiding the Afghan resistance (the Mujahideen) with major assistance from the United States.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: During this meeting, the Director-General of the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) then-Lieutenant-General Akhtar Abdur Rahman advocated for a covert operation in Afghanistan by arming Islamic Extremists. After this meeting, Zia authorised this operation under General Rahman, and it was later merged with Operation Cyclone, a programme funded by the United States and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: In November 1982, Zia travelled to Moscow to attend the funeral of Leonid Brezhnev, the late General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko and new Secretary General Yuri Andropov met with Zia there. Andropov expressed indignation over Pakistan's support of the Afghan resistance against the Soviet Union and its satellite state, Socialist Afghanistan. Zia took his hand and assured him, "General Secretary, believe me, Pakistan wants nothing but very good relations with the Soviet Union". According to Gromyko, Zia's sincerity convinced them, but Zia's actions didn't live up to his words.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: Zia reversed many of Bhutto's foreign policy initiatives by first establishing stronger links with the United States, Japan, and the Western world. Zia broken off relations with the Socialist state and State capitalism became his major economic policy. US politician Charlie Wilson claims that he worked with Zia and the CIA to channel Soviet weapons that Israel captured from the PLO in Lebanon to fighters in Afghanistan. Wilson claims that Zia remarked to him: "Just don't put any stars of David on the boxes".


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: One of the earliest initiatives taken by Zia in 1977, was to militarize the integrated atomic energy program which was founded by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in 1972. During the first stages, the program was under the control of Bhutto and the Directorate for Science, under Science Advisor Dr. Mubashir Hassan, who was heading the civilian committee that supervised the construction of the facilities and laboratories. This atomic bomb project had no boundaries with Munir Ahmad Khan and Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan leading their efforts separately and reported to Bhutto and his science adviser Dr. Hassan who had little interest in the atomic bomb project. Major-General Zahid Ali Akbar, an engineering officer, had little role in the atomic project; Zia responded by taking over the program under military control and disbanded the civilian directorate when he ordered the arrest of Hassan. This whole giant nuclear energy project was transferred into the administrative hands of Major-General Akbar who was soon made the Lieutenant-General and Engineer-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army Corps of Engineers to deal with the authorities whose co-operation was required. Akbar consolidated the entire project by placing the scientific research under military control, setting boundaries and goals. Akbar proved to be an extremely capable officer in the matters of science and technology when he aggressively led the development of nuclear weapons under Munir Ahmad Khan and Abdul Qadeer Khan in a matter of five years.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: By the time, Zia assumed control, the research facilities became fully functional and 90% of the work on atom bomb project was completed. Both the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) and the Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) had built the extensive research infrastructure started by Bhutto. Akbar's office was shifted to Army's General Headquarters (GHQ) and Akbar guided Zia on key matters of nuclear science and atomic bomb production. He became the first engineering officer to have acknowledge Zia about the success of this energy project into a fully matured program. On the recommendation of Akbar, Zia approved the appointment of Munir Ahmad Khan as the scientific director of the atomic bomb project, as Zia was convinced by Akbar that civilian scientists under Munir Khan's directorship were at their best to counter international pressure.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: This was proved when the PAEC conducted the cold-fission test of a fission device, codename "Kirana-I" on 11 March 1983 at the Weapon-Testing Laboratories-I, under the leadership of weapon-testing laboratory's director Dr. Ishfaq Ahmad. Lieutenant-General Zahid Akbar went to GHQ and notified Zia about the success of this test. The PAEC responded by conducting several cold-tests throughout the 1980s, a policy also continued by Benazir Bhutto in the 1990s. According to the reference in the book, ""Eating Grass"", Zia was so deeply convinced of the infiltration of Western and American moles and spies into the project, that he extended his role in the atomic bomb, which reflected extreme "paranoia", in both his personal and professional life. He virtually had PAEC and KRL separated from each other and made critical administrative decisions rather than putting scientists in charge of the aspects of the atomic programs. His actions spurred innovation in the atomic bomb project and an intense secrecy and security culture permeated PAEC and KRL.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: Unlike Bhutto, who faced rogue criticism and a heated diplomatic war with the United States throughout the 1970s, Zia took different diplomatic approaches to counter the international pressure. From 1979 to 1983, the country was made a subject of attack by international organization for not signing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT); Zia deftly neutralized international pressure by tagging Pakistan's nuclear weapons program to the nuclear designs of the neighboring Indian nuclear program. Zia, with the help of Munir Ahmad Khan and Agha Shahi, Foreign Minister, drew a five-point proposal as a practical rejoinder to world pressure on Pakistan to sign the NPT; the points including the renouncing of the use of nuclear weapons.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: Following the success of "Operation Opera" – in which an Israeli Air Force strike took place to destroy the Iraqi nuclear program in 1981 – suspicion grew in Pakistan that the Indian Air Force had similar plans for Pakistan. In a private meeting with General Anwar Shamim, then-Chief of Air Staff, Zia had notified General Shamim that the Indian Air Force had plans to infiltrate Pakistan's nuclear energy project, citing solid evidence. Shamim felt that the Air Force was unable to divert such attacks, therefore, he advised Zia to use diplomacy through Munir Ahmad Khan to divert the attacks. At Vienna, Munir Ahmad Khan met with Indian physicist Raja Ramanna and notified him that such an attack would provoke a nuclear war between the two countries. In the meantime, Shamim decided to start the program to acquire the F-16 Falcons and A-5 Fanton jets for the Pakistan Air Force. Shamim launched "Operation Sentinel"- a counter operation that thwarted the Israeli Air Force attempt to sabotage Pakistan's nuclear energy project—forced Indian Premier Indira Gandhi to hold talks with Pakistan on nuclear issues and directed a high delegation to Pakistan where both countries pledged not to assist or attack each other's facilities. In 1985, following the induction of the F-16 Falcons and A-5 Fantons, Shamim commissioned the Air Force Strategic Command to protect and battle the weapons of mass destruction.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: In 1977, Zia ultimately adopted the policy of "nuclear opacity" to deliberately deny the atomic bomb programs. This policy of nuclear ambiguity was adopted after witnessing the success of Israel's nuclear program and on multiple occasions Zia broke his words and promises concerning the nature of the country's atomic bomb project. On nuclear policy issues, Zia deliberately misguided the United States and concealed classified information from the outside world. The United States trusted Zia's sincerity and his promises made to the United States; Zia gave assurances to the United States not to produce weapons-grade plutonium and highly enriched uranium (HEU) above a 5% level. However, the Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Vernon Walter, confronted Zia on his secret trip to Pakistan in October 1981. Confronted with the evidence, Zia acknowledged that the information "must be true," but then denied everything, leading Walters to conclude that: "either Zia "did not know the facts" or was the "most superb and patriotic liar I have ever met...".


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: Soon after the coup, the clandestine nuclear energy project was no longer a secret to the outside world. Part of his strategy was the promotion of nuclear proliferation in anti-western states (such as North Korea, Iran, and communist China) to aid their own nuclear ambitions, to divert international attention which was difficult. In 1981, Zia contracted with China when he sent weapon-grade uranium to China and also built the centrifuge laboratory which increasingly enhanced the Chinese nuclear program. This act encouraged Abdul Qadeer Khan, who allegedly tried to aid the Libyan nuclear programme but because Libya–Pakistan relations were strained, Khan was warned of serious consequences. This policy envisaged that this would deflect international pressure onto these countries, and Pakistan would be spared the international community's wrath.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: After Zia's death, his successor General Mirza Aslam Beg, as Chief of Army Staff, encouraged Abdul Qadeer Khan and gave him a free hand to work with some like-minded nations such as North Korea, Iran and Libya which also wanted to pursue their nuclear ambitions for a variety of reasons. In 2004, Abdul Khan's dismissal from the nuclear weapons program was considered a face saving exercise by the Pakistan Armed Forces and political establishment under the then Chief of Army Staff and President General Pervez Musharraf. Zia's nuclear proliferation policy had a deep impact on the world, especially anti-western states, most nominally North Korea and Iran. In the 2000s (decade), North Korea would soon follow the same suit after it was targeted by the international community for its on-going nuclear program. In the 2000s (decade), North Korea attempted to aid the Syrian and Iranian nuclear program in the 1990s. The North Korean connection to the Syrian nuclear program was exposed in 2007 by Israel in its successful strategic operation, "Orchard", which resulted in them sabotaging the Syrian nuclear program as well as the deaths of 10 senior North Korean scientists who were aiding the nuclear program.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: Even though Zia had removed the Bhutto sentiment in the nuclear energy project, Zia did not completely disband Bhutto's policy on nuclear weapons. After the retirement of Zahid Ali Akbar, Zia transferred control of the nuclear weapons program to Bhutto's close aide Munir Ahmad Khan, Chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission. Soon, Zia promoted Khan as the technical director of the entire program as well as appointing Khan as his Science Adviser. With the support of handpicked civilian Prime Minister Muhammad Juneijo, Zia sanctioned the launch of the 50 Megawatt (MW) heavy water plutonium production reactor, known as "Khushab-I", at Khushab in 1985. Zia also took initiatives to launched the space projects as spin-off to nuclear project. Zia appointed nuclear engineer Salim Mehmud as the Administrator of the Space Research Commission. Zia also launched the work on the country's first satellite, "Badr-1", a military satellite. In 1987, Zia launched the clandestine aerospace project, the Integrated Missile Research Program under General Anwar Shamim in 1985, and later under Lieutenant-General Talat Masood in 1987.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: The rise of the illicit drug trade and its spread through Pakistan to the rest of the world increased tremendously during the Soviet-Afghan war. Afghanistan's drug industry began to take off after the Soviet invasion in 1979. Desperate for cash with which to buy weapons, various elements in the anti-Communist resistance turned to the drug trade. This was tolerated if not condoned by their American sponsors such as the CIA.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: In 1977, prior to the coup, the drinking and selling of wine by Muslims, along with nightclubs, and horse racing was banned by Prime Minister Bhutto in an effort to stem the tide of street Islamization.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: Zia went much further, committing himself to enforce "Nizam-e-Mustafa" ("Rule of the prophet" or Islamic System, i.e. establishing an Islamic state and sharia law), a significant turn from Pakistan's predominantly secular law, inherited from the British.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: Pakistan which was created in the name of Islam will continue to survive only if it sticks to Islam. That is why I consider the introduction of [an] Islamic system as an essential prerequisite for the country.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: Zia established "Sharia Benches" in each High Court (later the Federal Sharia Court) to judge legal cases using the teachings of the Quran and the Sunna, and to bring Pakistan's legal statutes into alignment with Islamic doctrine.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: Zia bolstered the influence of the "ulama" (Islamic clergy) and the Islamic parties. 10,000s of activists from the Jamaat-e-Islami party were appointed to government posts to ensure the continuation of his agenda after his passing. Conservative "ulama" (Islamic scholars) were added to the Council of Islamic Ideology.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: Islamization was a sharp change from Bhutto's original philosophical rationale captured in the slogan, ""Food, clothing, and shelter"". In Zia's view, socialist economics and a secular-socialist orientation served only to upset Pakistan's natural order and weaken its moral fiber. General Zia defended his policies in an interview in 1979 given to British journalist Ian Stephens:


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: How much of Zia's motivation came from piety and how much from political calculation is disputed. One author points out that Zia was conspicuously silent on the dispute between the heterodox Zikri and the 'Ulama in Balochistan where he needed stability. Secular and leftist forces accused Zia of manipulating Islam for political ends. According to Nusrat Bhutto, former First Lady of Pakistan:


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: How much success Zia had using state-sponsored Islamization to strengthen national cohesion is also disputed. Religious riots broke out in 1983 and 1984. Sectarian divisions between Sunnis and Shia worsened over the issue of the 1979 "Zakat" ordinance, but differences in Fiqh jurisprudence also arose in marriage and divorce, inheritance and wills and imposition of "hadd" punishments.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: Among Sunni Muslims, Deobandis and Barelvis also had disputes. Zia favoured the Deobandi doctrine and so the Sufi pirs of Sindh (who were Barelvis) joined the anti-Zia Movement for the Restoration of Democracy.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: In one of his first and most controversial measures to Islamize Pakistani society was the replacement of parts of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) with the 1979 "Hudood Ordinance." (Hudood meaning limits or restrictions, as in limits of acceptable behavior in Islamic law.) The Ordinance added new criminal offences of adultery and fornication to Pakistani law, and new punishments of whipping, amputation, and stoning to death.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: For theft or robbery, the PPC punishments of imprisonment or fine, or both, were replaced by amputation of the right hand of the offender for theft, and amputation of the right hand and left foot for robbery. For "Zina" (extramarital sex) the provisions relating to adultery were replaced by the Ordinance with punishments of flogged 100 lashes for those unmarried offenders, and stoning to death for married offenders.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: All these punishments were dependent on proof required for "hadd" being met. In practice the Hudd requirement—four Muslim men of good repute testifying as witness to the crime—was seldom met. As of 2014, no offenders have been stoned or had limbs amputated by the Pakistani judicial system. To be found guilty of theft, "zina", or drinking alcohol by less strict "tazir" standards—where the punishment was flogging and/or imprisonment—was common, and there have been many floggings.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: More worrisome for human rights and women's rights advocates, lawyers and politicians was the incarceration of thousands of rape victims on charges of "zina". The onus of providing proof in a rape case rests with the woman herself. Uncorroborated testimony by women was inadmissible in hudood crimes. If the victim/accuser was unable to prove her allegation, bringing the case to court was considered equivalent to a confession of sexual intercourse outside of lawful marriage. Despite this the ordinance remained in force until the Women's Protection Bill was passed in 2006.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: Although the Sharia punishments were imposed, the due process, witnesses, law of evidence, and prosecution system remained Anglo-Saxon.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: The hybridization of Pakistan penal code with Islamic laws was difficult because of the difference in the underlying logic of the two legal systems. PPC was kingly law, "Haddood" is a religious and community-based law.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: Under Zia, the order for women to cover their heads while in public was implemented in public schools, colleges and state television. Women's participation in sports and the performing arts was severely restricted. Following Sharia law, women's legal testimony was given half the weight of a man's, .


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: In 1980 the "Zakat and Ushr Ordinance, 1980" was implemented. The measure called for a 2.5% annual deduction from personal bank accounts on the first day of Ramadan, with Zia stating that the revenues would be used for poverty relief. Zakat committees were established to oversee distribution of the funds.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: In 1981 interest payments were replaced by "profit and loss" accounts (though profit was thought to be simply interest by another name). Textbooks were overhauled to remove un-Islamic material, and un-Islamic books were removed from libraries.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: Eating and drinking during Ramadan was outlawed, attempts were made to enforce praying of salat five times a day.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: To outlaw blasphemy, the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) were amended through ordinances in 1980, 1982 and 1986. The 1980 law prohibited derogatory remarks against Islamic personages, and carried a three-year prison sentence. In 1982 the small Ahmadiyya religious minority were prohibited from saying or implying they were Muslims. In 1986 declaring anything implying disrespect to the Islamic prophet Muhammad, "Ahl al-Bayt" (family members of Muhammad), "Sahabah" (companions of Muhammad) or "Sha'ar-i-Islam" (Islamic symbols) was made a cognisable offence, punishable with imprisonment or fine, or both.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: Traditional religious madrassass in Pakistan received state sponsorship for the first time, under the General Zia-ul-Haq's administration, their number grew from 893 to 2,801. Most were Deobandi in doctrinal orientation, while one quarter of them were Barelvi. They received funding from Zakat councils and provided free religious training, room and board to impoverished Pakistanis. The schools, which banned televisions and radios, have been criticised by authors for stoking sectarian hatred both between Muslim sects and against non-Muslims.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: In a 1979 address to the nation, Zia decried the Western culture and music in the country. Soon afterwards, PTV, the national television network ceased playing music videos and only patriotic songs were broadcast. New taxes were levied on the film industry and most of the cinemas in Lahore were shut down. New tax rates were introduced, further decreasing cinema attendances.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: It was under Zia and the economic prosperity of his era that the country's urban middle and lower-middle-classes expanded and Western 1980s fashion wear and hairstyle spread in popularity, and rock music bands gained momentum, according to leftist cultural critic Nadeem F. Paracha.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: During his tenure, he oversaw passing of an ordinance for the welfare of people with disabilities. The ordinance is called "The Disabled Persons (Employment and Rehabilitation) Ordinance, 1981" and it was passed into law on 29 December 1981. It provides the measures for the employment, rehabilitation and welfare of the people with disabilities.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: As time passed, the legislature wanted to have more freedom and power and by the beginning of 1988, rumours about the differences between Prime Minister Muhammad Khan Junejo and Zia were rife.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: It is said by some that Zia-Junejo rift was encouraged by late Mahboob-ul-Haq and Junejo's insistence on signing Geneva pact without deciding the composition of next government of Afghanistan before Soviet withdrawal. Junejo also gave Benazir a seat next to him in parleys before that. Junejo did not strengthen the Islamization drive and rather weakened it. His era led to serious disturbances in Karachi and ultimately Karachi went into the secular control of MQM from the clutches of Sunnis Jamaat-e-Islami.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: Ojhri Camp blast had irreversibly weakened Zia. Junejo was committed to make an investigation into the Ojhri camp disaster. This couldn't be digested by President as it would expose the involvement of ISI and Zia co- fellow Generals. After defeat of Soviet army, America wanted to audit the ammunition and missiles supplied to Pakistan for Mujahideen, most of which has been stored by Pakistan for future targets against India or other enemies. So Zia planned this event in a very cruel manner, having sacrificed the lives of people of Pakistan for fulfillment of their own agenda.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: On 29 May 1988, Zia dissolved the National Assembly and removed the Prime Minister under article 58(2)b of the amended Constitution. Apart from many other reasons, Prime Minister Junejo's decision to sign the Geneva Accord against the wishes of Zia, and his open declarations of removing any military personnel found responsible for an explosion at a munitions dump at Ojhri Camp, on the outskirts of army headquarters in Rawalpindi, earlier in the year, proved to be some of the major factors responsible for his removal.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: Zia promised to hold elections in 1988 after the dismissal of Junejo government. He said that he would hold elections within the next 90 days. The late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's daughter Benazir Bhutto had returned from exile earlier in 1986, and had announced that she would be contesting the elections. With Bhutto's popularity somewhat growing, and a decrease in international aid following the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, Zia was in an increasingly difficult political situation.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: Zia died in a plane crash on 17 August 1988. After witnessing a US M1 Abrams tank demonstration in Bahawalpur, Zia had left the city in the Punjab province by C-130B Hercules aircraft. The aircraft departed from Bahawalpur Airport and was expected to reach Islamabad International Airport. Shortly after a smooth takeoff, the control tower lost contact with the aircraft. Witnesses who saw the plane in the air afterward claim it was flying erratically, then nosedived and exploded on impact. In addition to Zia, 31 others died in the plane crash, including chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Akhtar Abdur Rahman, close associate of Zia, Brigadier Siddique Salik, the American ambassador to Pakistan Arnold Lewis Raphel and General Herbert M. Wassom, the head of the US military aid mission to Pakistan. Ghulam Ishaq Khan, the Senate chairman announced Zia's death on radio and TV. Conditions surrounding his death have given rise to many conspiracy theories. There is speculation that the United States, India, the Soviet Union (in retaliation for Pakistani support of the mujahideen in Afghanistan) or an alliance of them and internal groups within Zia's military were behind the incident.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: A board of inquiry was set up to investigate the crash. It concluded 'the most probable cause of the crash was a criminal act of sabotage perpetrated in the aircraft'. It also suggested that poisonous gases were released which incapacitated the passengers and crew, which would explain why no Mayday signal was given. There was also speculation into other facts involving the details of the investigation. A flight recorder (black box) was not located after the crash even though previous C-130 aircraft did have them installed.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: Maj. Gen. (retd) Mahmud Ali Durrani, who was suspected by many circles within Pakistan and also by then United States ambassador to India, John Gunther Dean, for being "extraordinarily insistent" with President Zia to visit the demonstration, is considered to be the prime suspect in the incident. He claimed later that reports of Israeli and Indian involvement in Zia's plane crash were only speculations.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: Lt. General Hameed Gul, the head of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence agency at the time, suggested that the United States might be responsible, even though the U.S. ambassador and military attaché were also killed. He told "The Times" that the Pakistani President was killed in a conspiracy involving a "foreign power".


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: His funeral was held on 19 August 1988 near Islamabad. As a 21-gun salute of light artillery resounded off the lush Margalla Hills, nearly one million mourners joined in chants of "Zia ul-Haq, you will live as long as the sun and moon remain above." His remains were laid to rest in a 4-by-10-foot dirt grave in front of the huge, modern Faisal Mosque that Zia had built as a symbol of Pakistani-Saudi friendship. Also in attendance was his successor President Ghulam Ishaq Khan, chiefs of staff of armed forces, chairman joint chiefs, and other high military and civil officials. Former US Secretary of State George P. Shultz also laid a floral wreath at Zia's grave.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: Even after his death, Zia-ul-Haq remained a highly polarizing and widely discussed figure in the country's intellectual and political circles. Out of the country's short history, Zia-ul-Haq's legacy remains a most toxic, enduring, and tamper-proof legacy, according to the editorial written in "Dawn". He is also praised for defeating the Soviets. Indian journalist Kallol Bhattacherjee, an author of a book on Afghanistan, said:"There will not be another Zia in South Asia. He was unique and multidimensional like all complex characters of South Asian history. I admire Zia's guts, though not his methods, especially in regards to Islam. He successfully took on nuclear India and changed the balance of power that Indira Gandhi created in the 1971 war and broke all rules to acquire nuclear weapons for Pakistan."Historians and political scientists widely discussed and studied his policy making skills, some authors noting him as ""The Ringmaster"", ""Master of Illusion"" and ""Master Tactician"". However, his most remembered and enduring legacy was his indirect involvement and military strategies, by proxy supporting the Mujahideen, against the USSR's war in Afghanistan. His reign also helped the conservatives to rise at the national politics against Benazir Bhutto. He is also noted as being one of Pakistan's most successful generals, placing the armed forces in charge of the country's affairs. During his regime, western styles in hair, clothing, and music flooded the country. The 1980s gave birth to Pakistani rock music, which expressed Pakistani nationalism in the country.


title: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

text: With the passing of the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan (2010), the executive powers General Zia had legislated were permanently deleted from the Constitution of Pakistan.


title: Lenny Henry

text: Dr Sir Lenworth George Henry (born 29 August 1958) is a British actor, comedian, singer, television presenter and writer.


title: Lenny Henry

text: Henry gained success as a stand-up comedian and impressionist in the late 1970s and early 1980s, culminating in "The Lenny Henry Show" in 1984. He was the most prominent black British comedian of the time and much of his material served to celebrate and parody his African-Caribbean roots. In 1985, he cofounded the charity Comic Relief with the comedy screenwriter Richard Curtis. He has appeared in numerous other TV programmes, including children's entertainment show "Tiswas", sitcom "Chef!" and "The Magicians" for BBC One, and in his later years has transitioned toward acting roles in stage and screen. He appears in the Amazon Prime series "". Henry is the Chancellor of Birmingham City University.


title: Lenny Henry

text: Lenworth George Henry was born at Burton Road Hospital in Dudley, on 29 August 1958, to Winston Jervis Henry (1910–1978) and Winifred Louise Henry (1922–1998), who had emigrated to Britain from Jamaica. The fifth of seven children, Henry was the first child of the family to be born in the United Kingdom. When Henry was ten years old, he began spending time with the man who was later revealed to be his biological father, Albert Augustus "Bertie" Green (1927–2004), another Jamaican immigrant with whom his mother had a brief relationship when she first arrived in England from their native Jamaica. Henry was named after the doctor who delivered him.


title: Lenny Henry

text: Henry attended St John's Primary School and later The Blue Coat School in Dudley, before completing his schooling at W.R. Tuson College in Preston, Lancashire.


title: Lenny Henry

text: Henry's formative years in comedy were spent in working men's clubs, where he impersonated mainly white characters, such as the "Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em" character Frank Spencer. His earliest television appearance was on the "New Faces" talent show in 1975, aged 16, which he won with impersonations of Frank Spencer, Stevie Wonder and others.


title: Lenny Henry

text: His first manager was Robert Luff, who signed him in 1975 and gave him the opportunity, between the ages of 16 and 21, to perform as a comedian as part of the Luff-produced touring stage version of "The Black and White Minstrel Show". In July 2009, Lenny Henry stated he was contractually obligated to perform and regretted his part in the show, telling "The Times" in 2015 that his appearance on the show led to a profound "wormhole of depression", and he regretted his family not intervening.


title: Lenny Henry

text: In 1976, Henry appeared with Norman Beaton in LWT's sitcom "The Fosters", Britain's first comedy series featuring a predominantly black cast. Henry also made guest appearances on television programmes including "Celebrity Squares", "Seaside Special" and "The Ronnie Corbett Show".


title: Lenny Henry

text: In 1980, Henry performed in Summer Season in Blackpool with Cannon and Ball. He has since said that "the summer season was the first time [he] felt that [his] act had received a proper response from an audience". Around the same time, he co-hosted the children's programme "Tiswas" from 1978 until 1981 playing such characters as Rastafarian Algernon Razzmatazz, David Bellamy and Trevor McDoughnut (a parody of Trevor McDonald), and subsequently performed and wrote for the show "Three of a Kind".


title: Lenny Henry

text: Also in 1980, he teamed up with alternative-comedy collective The Comic Strip. While involved with the group, he met his wife, comedian Dawn French. She encouraged him to move over to the fledgling alternative comedy scene, where he established a career as a stand-up comedy performer and character comedian.


title: Lenny Henry

text: He introduced characters who both mocked and celebrated African Caribbean British culture, such as Brixton pirate radio disc jockey DJ Delbert Wilkins. His stand-up material, which sold well on LP, owed much to the writing abilities of Kim Fuller. During this time, he also spent three years as a DJ on BBC Radio 1, playing soul and electro tracks and introducing some of the characters that he would later popularise on television. He made a guest appearance in the final episode of "The Young Ones" as The Postman, in 1984.


title: Lenny Henry

text: The first series of "The Lenny Henry Show" appeared on the BBC in 1984. The show featured stand up, spoofs like his send-up of Michael Jackson's Thriller video, and many of the characters he had developed during Summer Season, including Theophilus P. Wildebeeste (based on Teddy Pendergrass) and Delbert Wilkins. A principal scriptwriter for his television and stage shows during the 1990s was Jon Canter. "The Lenny Henry Show" ran periodically for a further 19 years in various incarnations. Across the incarnations, he performed impressions of several iconic American celebrities such as Beyoncé, JAY Z, Tina Turner, Prince, Michael Jackson (both men share a birthday date), Stevie Wonder, Run DMC, Cee Lo Green, Denzel Washington, Idris Elba and Wesley Snipes.


title: Lenny Henry

text: It was in 1985 that Henry co-founded the British Comic Relief charity organisation, and 1988 when the first ever Red Nose Day was celebrated. Over 150 celebrities and comedians, including Henry, took part in an evening long BBC broadcast, which was watched by 30 million viewers and raised over £15 million.


title: Lenny Henry

text: Prior to the 1987 general election, Henry lent his support to Red Wedge by participating in a comedy tour organised by the campaign.


title: Lenny Henry

text: In 1987, he appeared in a TV film, "Coast to Coast". It was a comedy thriller with John Shea about two DJs with a shared passion for Motown music being chased across Britain. The film has a strong following, but contractual problems have prevented it from being distributed on video or DVD.


title: Lenny Henry

text: In the early 1990s, Henry starred in the Hollywood film "True Identity", in which his character pretended to be a white person (using make-up, prostheses, and a wig) to avoid the mob. The film was not commercially successful. In 1991, he starred in a BBC drama alongside Robbie Coltrane called "Alive and Kicking", in which he played a heroin addict, which was based on a true story.


title: Lenny Henry

text: Also in 1991, he starred in the Christmas comedy "Bernard and the Genie" alongside Alan Cumming and Rowan Atkinson. Henry is known as the choleric chef Gareth Blackstock from the 1990s television comedy series "Chef!", or from his 1999 straight-acting lead role in the BBC drama "Hope And Glory". He was co-creator with Neil Gaiman and producer of the 1996 BBC drama serial "Neverwhere".


title: Lenny Henry

text: Henry appeared as a backing singer on Kate Bush's album "The Red Shoes" (1993) for the song "Why Should I Love You?" on which Prince played guitar. He also performed, backed by David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, at Amnesty International's Big 3-0 fund raising concert. Henry returned to the BBC to do "Lenny Henry in Pieces", a character-based comedy sketch show which was followed by "The Lenny Henry Show", in which he combined stand-up, character sketches and song parodies. He also was in the Harry Potter shows.


title: Lenny Henry

text: In 2003, Henry was listed in "The Observer" as one of the fifty funniest acts in British comedy. He was the voice of the British speaking clock for two weeks in March 2003 in aid of Comic Relief.


title: Lenny Henry

text: Henry voiced Dre Head, the "shrunken head" on the Knight Bus in the 2004 Alfonso Cuarón movie "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban", and read the audiobook version of Neil Gaiman's "Anansi Boys". He also voiced Sporty on the children's show "Little Robots". Henry appeared in advertisements for butter products in New Zealand, commissioned by the company now known as Fonterra, as well as portraying Saint Peter in the Virgin Mobile advertising campaign in South Africa. In the UK, he used his character of Theophilus P. Wildebeeste to advertise Alpen muesli, and promoted the non-alcoholic lager, Kaliber.


title: Lenny Henry

text: In June 2000, for a BBC documentary, he sailed a trimaran from Plymouth to Antigua with yachtsman Tony Bullimore. In 2005, he appeared in Birmingham, as an act for "Jasper Carrott's Rock with Laughter". He appeared alongside performers such as Bill Bailey, Jasper Carrott, Bonnie Tyler, Bobby Davro and the Lord of the Dance troupe. In 2006, Henry starred in the BBC programme "Berry's Way". He did the voice of Dark Nebula in "". On 16 March 2007, Henry made a cameo appearance as himself in a sketch with Catherine Tate, who appeared in the guise of her character Geordie Georgie from "The Catherine Tate Show". The sketch was made for the BBC Red Nose Day fundraising programme of 2007.


title: Lenny Henry

text: On 16 June 2007 Lenny appeared with Chris Tarrant and Sally James to present a 25th Anniversary episode of "Tiswas". The show lasted 90 minutes and featured celebrities discussing their enjoyment of "Tiswas" as children, as well as appearances from kids and people who had appeared on the original show. In the summer of 2007, he presented "Lenny's Britain", a comedy documentary tour made with the Open University on BBC One on Tuesday nights. In late 2007, he hosted a stand-up comedy tour of the UK.


title: Lenny Henry

text: In early 2008, Henry's series "lennyhenry.tv" was broadcast on BBC One. The programme has an accompanying website of the same name and broadcasts strange, weird and generally amusing online videos and CCTV clips. He starred in the Radio 4 show "Rudy's Rare Records". On 31 December 2008 and 1 January 2009, he appeared on Jools Holland's "Hootenanny" on BBC Two, singing part of the song "Mercy" along with singer Duffy. In January 2009, he appeared on the BBC's comedy show, "Live at The Apollo", in which he played host for the night, introducing Andy Parsons and Ed Byrne, where he referred to Wikipedia as "Wrongopedia" for containing incorrect information about his life.


title: Lenny Henry

text: In October 2009, Henry reprised his role of Deakus to feature in comedy shorts about story writing alongside Nina Wadia, Tara Palmer Tomkinson and Stephen K. Amos. He also offers his own writing tips and amusing anecdotes in the writing tips video clip on BBC raw words – story writing. He supplied the voices of both Big and Small in the BBC CBeebies children's programme "Big & Small".


title: Lenny Henry

text: In 2010, Henry produced and starred in a five-part web series for the BBC Comedy website, "Conversations with my Wife", about a fictional couple conversing over Skype while the wife is away on business leaving the husband (played by Henry) to hold the fort at home.


title: Lenny Henry

text: In 2008, he became the face of budget hotel operator Premier Inn. One of the 2010 adverts caused controversy and was banned from children's programming hours as it parodied a well-known scene from the film "The Shining", with Lenny Henry spoofing the scene originally starring Jack Nicholson, smashing a door with an axe and then thrusting his head through the door saying: "Here's Lenny."


title: Lenny Henry

text: In 2011, Henry presented a Saturday night magic series called "The Magicians" on BBC One. The show returned in 2012; however, Henry was replaced by Darren McMullen.


title: Lenny Henry

text: In March 2011, he appeared with Angela Rippon, Samantha Womack and Reggie Yates in the BBC fundraising documentary for Comic Relief called "Famous, Rich and in the Slums", wherein the four celebrities were sent to Kibera in Kenya, the African continent's largest slum.


title: Lenny Henry

text: Henry was criticised for his opening sketch for the 2011 Comic Relief, during which he spoofed the film "The King's Speech" and grew impatient with Colin Firth's portrayal of King George VI as he stammered over his speech. "The Sun" reported that the British Stammering Association had branded the sketch as "a gross and disgusting gleefulness at pointing out someone else's misfortune".


title: Lenny Henry

text: In 2014, Henry appeared in and produced a play based on his radio show "Rudy's Rare Records", which played at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre before moving on to a run in London.


title: Lenny Henry

text: Henry wrote "Danny and the Human Zoo", a ninety-minute television film shown on BBC One in 2015. Directed by Destiny Ekaragha, it was a fictionalised account of Henry's life as a teenager in 1970s Dudley. Henry played Samson Fearon, a character based on Henry's own father Winston.


title: Lenny Henry

text: In November 2019, it was announced that Henry would guest star in "Spyfall", the two-part opening episode of "Doctor Who"'s twelfth revived series, which broadcast on New Year's Day and 4 January 2020. Henry played technology billionaire Daniel Barton.


title: Lenny Henry

text: In December 2020, Henry was announced as a cast member of Amazon Prime Video's "". It premiered on 1 September 2022.


title: Lenny Henry

text: In 2021, Henry appeared as a contestant on the second series of "The Masked Singer", masked as "The Blob". He finished in 6th place.


title: Lenny Henry

text: On 6 November 2021, "The Guardian" published "Black British culture matters", curated by Henry and Marcus Ryder for its Saturday Culture Issue No7.


title: Lenny Henry

text: In 2022, Henry was cast in "The Sandman" as the voice of Martin Tenbones, a magical, doglike creature who appears in the dreams of another character called Barbie.


title: Lenny Henry

text: In March 2021, Henry wrote an open letter urging everyone to get COVID-19 vaccination. Henry stated people ought to, "trust the facts" and distrust misinformation. Henry also wrote, "Because we love you – we want you to be safe and we don’t want you to be left out or left behind. While other communities are rushing to get the vaccine and millions have already been vaccinated, some Black people in our community are being more cautious," The letter encourages black UK adults to take an informed decision over the vaccine and get vaccinated so as to protect themselves and those they care for.


title: Lenny Henry

text: Henry was introduced to Shakespeare when he made the 2006 Radio 4 series "Lenny and Will", which saw him going "in search of the magic of Shakespeare in performance". In February 2009, he appeared in the title role in the Northern Broadsides production of "Othello" at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds. Before the production opened the director Barrie Rutter said of the decision to cast him: "knives might be out at me or at Lenny. I don't care. This has come about from a completely genuine desire to do a piece of theatrical work. Bloody hell, how long has the Donmar had Hollywood stars going there for £200? He's six-foot five. He's beautifully black. And he's Othello."


title: Lenny Henry

text: Henry received widespread critical acclaim in the role. Charles Spencer in "The Daily Telegraph" said "This is one of the most astonishing debuts in Shakespeare I have ever seen. It is impossible to praise too highly Henry's courage in taking on so demanding and exposed a role, and then performing it with such authority and feeling." Michael Billington in "The Guardian" noted "Henry's voice may not always measure up to the rhetorical music of the verse, but there is a simple dignity to his performance that touches one". Lynne Walker of "The Independent" said of Henry that his "emotional dynamism is in no doubt. The frenzy within his imagination explodes into rage and, finally, wretchedness. It's not a subtle reading but it works powerfully in this context."


title: Lenny Henry

text: Henry has said that he saw parallels between himself and Othello. "I'm used to being the only black person wherever I go...There was never a black or Asian director when I went to the BBC. Eventually I thought 'where are they all?' I spent a lot of time on my own. Things have changed a bit, but rarely at the BBC do I meet anyone of colour in a position of power."


title: Lenny Henry

text: The production was scheduled to transfer to the West End of London from 11 September to 12 December 2009, to be performed at the Trafalgar Studios in Whitehall.


title: Lenny Henry

text: In November 2011, Henry made his debut at the Royal National Theatre in London in Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Errors", directed by Dominic Cooke, in which he played the character of Antipholus of Syracuse. The production was selected to be broadcast live to selected cinemas worldwide in March 2012 as part of the National Theatre Live programme. Henry's performance gained positive reviews. Paul Taylor in "The Independent" wrote that "Henry beautifully conveys the tragicomic plight of an innocent abroad."


title: Lenny Henry

text: In 2015, Henry was asked by Sky Arts to produce a show for them, "Lenny Henry's Got The Blues". He worked with a group of musicians including Jakko Jakszyk, lead singer of King Crimson, to produce the album "New Millennium Blues". The album consists of both covers of blues classics, as well as original tracks co-written by Lenny. Henry later released "hard-hitting animated blues video" directed by Iranian filmmaker, Sam Chegini titled "The Cops Don't Know" which was premiered by "Classic Rock" magazine on 20 April 2016.


title: Lenny Henry

text: "Who Am I, Again?" (2019) a memoir that covered his formative years, starting with the arrival of his parents in Dudley, and ending when he began to experience success in the late 1970s.


title: Lenny Henry

text: "Rising to the Surface" continues his memoirs from the point his first ended. "Rising..." covers his rise to fame. Henry begins with his children’s show "Tiswas" and continues through his "The Lenny Henry Show", which was broadcast for 20 years though not continuously.


title: Lenny Henry

text: Henry's two young adult books were written to address his belief that the lack of non-white characters in fantasy was harmful to young adult non-white readers. "The Boy With Wings" tells the story of a boy who sprouts wings and learns to fly. He and his friends must save the world. "The Book of Legends" features two black siblings Bran and Fran who live with their mother in a small Midlands town. When their mother goes missing, their hunt for her leads them to another world.


title: Lenny Henry

text: Henry met Dawn French on the alternative comedy circuit. They married in 1984 in Covent Garden, London and have one child, an adopted daughter named Billie. On 6 April 2010, French and Henry announced they were "amicably" separating after 25 years of marriage. Their divorce was finalised in 2010.


title: Lenny Henry

text: Henry obtained a BA Hons degree in English Literature from the Open University in 2007 and an MA in Screenwriting for TV and Film from Royal Holloway, University of London in 2010. He subsequently studied at the latter institution for a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree on the role of black people in the media. In July 2018, Henry was awarded a PhD in media arts for a thesis titled "Does the Coach Have to be Black? The Sports Film, Screenwriting and Diversity: A Practice-Based Enquiry".


title: Lenny Henry

text: Henry has been an open critic of British television's lack of ethnic diversity in its programmes. During a speech at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in March 2014, he called the lack of minorities "appalling" and he has continued to raise the issue publicly.


title: Lenny Henry

text: Henry was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1999 New Year Honours. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the British Comedy Awards in 2003. He was knighted in the Queen's 2015 Birthday Honours for services to drama and charity. In July 2016, Henry became the chancellor of Birmingham City University citing his passion to give life changing opportunities to young people from a wide range of backgrounds. Henry has also been listed in the "Powerlist" of the 100 most influential Black Britons, including ranking fourth in 2016.


title: Lenny Henry

text: In 2016, Henry was made a fellow of the Royal Television Society. Henry was awarded the BAFTA Television: Special Award, the Alan Clarke Award for Outstanding Contribution to TV, in 2016. Also in 2016, Henry was awarded an honorary doctorate from Nottingham Trent University in recognition of his significant contribution to British comedy and drama, along with his achievements in international charity work.


title: Mashallah

text: Mashallah (, '), also written Masha'Allah, Maşallah (Turkey and Azerbaijan), Masya Allah (Malaysia and Indonesia), Maschallah (Germany), and Mašallah (Bosnia), is an Arabic phrase that is used to express a feeling of awe or beauty regarding an event or person that was just mentioned. It is a common expression used throughout the Muslim world and non-Muslim Arabs to mean, in its literal sense, that “what God has willed has happened”.


title: Mashallah

text: The triconsonantal root of "" is šīn-yāʼ-hamza "to will", a doubly-weak root. The literal English translation is "what God has willed", the present perfect of God's will accentuating the essential Islamic doctrine of predestination.


title: Mashallah

text: The literal meaning of "Mashallah" is "what God has willed", in the sense of "what God has willed has happened"; it is used to say something good has happened, used in the past tense. "Inshallah", literally "if God has willed", is used similarly but to refer to a future event.


title: Mashallah

text: "Masha Allah" can be used to congratulate someone. It is a reminder that although the person is being congratulated, ultimately God willed it. In some cultures, people may utter "Masha Allah" in the belief that it may help protect them from jealousy, the evil eye or a jinn. The phrase has also found its way into the colloquial language of many non-Arab languages with predominantly Muslim speakers, including Indonesians, Malaysians, Persians, Turks, Kurds, Bosniaks, Azerbaijanis, Somalis, Chechens, Avars, Circassians, Bangladeshis, Tatars, Albanians, Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Turkmens, Tajiks, Afghans, Pakistanis, and others.


title: Mashallah

text: It is also used by some Christians and others in areas which were ruled by the Ottoman Empire: Serbs, Romanians, Christian Albanians, Bulgarians and Macedonians say "машала" ("mašala"), often in the sense of "a job well done"; also some Georgians, Armenians, Bosnian Croats, Pontic Greeks (descendants of those that came from the Pontus region), Cypriot Greeks and Sephardi Jews.


title: Hunt for the Wilderpeople

text: Hunt for the Wilderpeople is a 2016 New Zealand adventure comedy-drama film written and directed by Taika Waititi, whose screenplay was based on the book "Wild Pork and Watercress" by Barry Crump. Sam Neill and Julian Dennison play "Uncle" Hector and Ricky Baker; a father figure and foster son who become the targets of a manhunt after fleeing into the New Zealand bush. Carthew Neal, Leanne Saunders, Matt Noonan, and Waititi produced the film.


title: Hunt for the Wilderpeople

text: The film premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival on 22 January 2016. The film opened across New Zealand on 31 March 2016. The film received a limited North American release on 24 June 2016.


title: Hunt for the Wilderpeople

text: The film received critical acclaim, with many critics highlighting Dennison and Neill's performances and chemistry.


title: Hunt for the Wilderpeople

text: Ricky Baker, a juvenile delinquent who was abandoned by his mother, is taken by child welfare services officer Paula and police officer Andy, to live in a remote farm with foster aunt Bella Faulkner and her husband, the cantankerous southern man Hector or Hec. Hec is remote, but Bella quickly manages to break through Ricky's defensive shell by taking him hunting and giving him a dog for his 13th birthday, which he names Tupac after his idol Tupac Shakur.


title: Hunt for the Wilderpeople

text: When Bella suddenly dies and Hec gets a letter that informs Ricky that child services will take him back, Ricky ineptly fakes his suicide by burning a barn and runs away into the bush with Tupac, where he is completely unable to cope and gets lost. Hec finds him easily but breaks his ankle in a fall, forcing the two to camp for a period of time. The authorities meanwhile have found the house empty and the barn burnt down, and come to the conclusion that the bereaved and mentally unstable Hec has abducted Ricky. The impression is strengthened after Hec and Ricky encounter three foolish hunters (Joe, Ron, and Hugh) who get the idea that Hec is molesting Ricky. Hec reveals to Ricky that he has served prison time for manslaughter and is illiterate. Ricky, in turn, says his only friend in foster care has died and that his only options are risking the same fate in the foster system, or serving time in juvenile prison. The pair agree to disappear into the bush.


title: Hunt for the Wilderpeople

text: A national manhunt ensues, and the two slowly bond while working together to escape arrest. Upon finding another hut, they encounter an unconscious, diabetic ranger. Hec decides to stay with the ranger and sends Ricky to find help. Ricky runs into a girl his age named Kahu, who takes him back to her house and introduces him to her dad. Ricky stays the night and returns the next morning to the hut where Hec was supposed to be. Ricky finds the place to be swarming with police, led by Paula and Andy. Ricky runs away. He later encounters Paula and Andy in the bush, separated by a ditch. Paula attempts to bribe Ricky, asking him to say that Hec was a sex offender. In return, she tells him that he will not ever go to juvenile prison. Ricky declines and runs away. Ricky catches up to Hec by remembering the survival strategies Hec taught him, and they continue their travels. They encounter a wild boar that mortally wounds Hec's dog Zag, forcing Hec to euthanize him. Ricky reveals he has been carrying Bella's ashes and originally planned to deliver them to "where the earth wets the cloak of the sky," as per her wishes. They bury Zag and scatter Bella's ashes into a remote waterfall high in a mountain range. Ricky and Hec find a man living out on his own called Psycho Sam. Sam lets them stay the night. After five months of surviving in the wilderness and several close calls, they are finally caught following a car and helicopter chase, and Ricky accidentally shoots Hec. Hec gets remanded and Ricky is taken in by Kahu's family.


title: Hunt for the Wilderpeople

text: After Hec's release from jail, Ricky seeks him out to apologize for the poor note their adventure ended on and to invite him to join Kahu's family, who he points out could use Hec's help around their farm. Hec agrees, and the two head out into the bush in search of a huia, an extinct bird they had re-discovered during their time on the run.


title: Hunt for the Wilderpeople

text: Waititi first began to adapt the book "Wild Pork and Watercress" in 2005, and completed multiple different drafts. The early drafts stayed true to the book. However, later versions departed from it in several ways. Julian Dennison was cast by Waititi from earlier work they did together on a commercial.


title: Hunt for the Wilderpeople

text: The film had a budget of approximately NZ$4.5 million, of which $2 million came from the New Zealand Film Commission.


title: Hunt for the Wilderpeople

text: The film was shot over 5 weeks, in locations including the Central Plateau and the Waitākere Ranges. Almost the entire film was shot using a single camera.


title: Hunt for the Wilderpeople

text: The soundtrack was composed by Moniker and was released on 8 April 2016 by Majestical Pictures Ltd. All original songs were written and performed by Moniker unless specified.


title: Hunt for the Wilderpeople

text: The film premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival on 22 January 2016 and was released in cinemas on 31 March 2016 in New Zealand by Madman Entertainment and The Orchard. The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray in America on 25 October 2016 by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.


title: Hunt for the Wilderpeople

text: The film grossed NZ$1,263,000 in New Zealand on its opening weekend, the highest grossing opening weekend for a New Zealand film, ahead of "What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?"s $912,000 record in 1999. It has become the highest grossing New Zealand film, making over NZ$12 million.


title: Hunt for the Wilderpeople

text: Internationally, as of October 2016, the film has grossed A$10,935,319 in Australia, US$507,380 in the UK and US$5,137,201 in North America.


title: Hunt for the Wilderpeople

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, "Hunt for the Wilderpeople" received a score of 97%, based on 201 reviews, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "The charmingly offbeat "Hunt for the Wilderpeople" unites a solid cast, a talented filmmaker, and a poignant, funny, deeply affecting message." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 81 out of 100, based on 30 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".


title: Hunt for the Wilderpeople

text: In his review, Hamish Popplestone remarked: "Though both flawed, Neill's and Dennison's characters are so, so charming on-screen and are fully apt at weaving through the dramatic, comedic, and sad points of the script." "Empire" magazine named "Hunt for the Wilderpeople" the number one film for 2016.


title: MATLAB

text: MATLAB (an abbreviation of "MATrix LABoratory") is a proprietary multi-paradigm programming language and numeric computing environment developed by MathWorks. MATLAB allows matrix manipulations, plotting of functions and data, implementation of algorithms, creation of user interfaces, and interfacing with programs written in other languages.


title: MATLAB

text: Although MATLAB is intended primarily for numeric computing, an optional toolbox uses the MuPAD symbolic engine allowing access to symbolic computing abilities. An additional package, Simulink, adds graphical multi-domain simulation and model-based design for dynamic and embedded systems.


title: MATLAB

text: As of 2020, MATLAB has more than 4 million users worldwide. They come from various backgrounds of engineering, science, and economics.


title: MATLAB

text: MATLAB was invented by mathematician and computer programmer Cleve Moler. The idea for MATLAB was based on his 1960s PhD thesis. Moler became a math professor at the University of New Mexico and started developing MATLAB for his students as a hobby. He developed MATLAB's initial linear algebra programming in 1967 with his one-time thesis advisor, George Forsythe. This was followed by Fortran code for linear equations in 1971.


title: MATLAB

text: In the beginning (before version 1.0) MATLAB "was not a programming language; it was a simple interactive matrix calculator. There were no programs, no toolboxes, no graphics. And no ODEs or FFTs."


title: MATLAB

text: The first early version of MATLAB was completed in the late 1970s. The software was disclosed to the public for the first time in February 1979 at the Naval Postgraduate School in California. Early versions of MATLAB were simple matrix calculators with 71 pre-built functions. At the time, MATLAB was distributed for free to universities. Moler would leave copies at universities he visited and the software developed a strong following in the math departments of university campuses.


title: MATLAB

text: In the 1980s, Cleve Moler met John N. Little. They decided to reprogram MATLAB in C and market it for the IBM desktops that were replacing mainframe computers at the time. John Little and programmer Steve Bangert re-programmed MATLAB in C, created the MATLAB programming language, and developed features for toolboxes.


title: MATLAB

text: MATLAB was first released as a commercial product in 1984 at the Automatic Control Conference in Las Vegas. MathWorks, Inc. was founded to develop the software and the MATLAB programming language was released. The first MATLAB sale was the following year, when Nick Trefethen from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology bought ten copies.


title: MATLAB

text: By the end of the 1980s, several hundred copies of MATLAB had been sold to universities for student use. The software was popularized largely thanks to toolboxes created by experts in various fields for performing specialized mathematical tasks. Many of the toolboxes were developed as a result of Stanford students that used MATLAB in academia, then brought the software with them to the private sector.


title: MATLAB

text: Over time, MATLAB was re-written for early operating systems created by Digital Equipment Corporation, VAX, Sun Microsystems, and for Unix PCs. Version 3 was released in 1987. The first MATLAB compiler was developed by Stephen C. Johnson in the 1990s.


title: MATLAB

text: In 2000, MathWorks added a Fortran-based library for linear algebra in MATLAB 6, replacing the software's original LINPACK and EISPACK subroutines that were in C. MATLAB's Parallel Computing Toolbox was released at the 2004 Supercomputing Conference and support for graphics processing units (GPUs) was added to it in 2010.


title: MATLAB

text: Some especially large changes to the software were made with version 8 in 2012. The user interface was reworked and Simulink's functionality was expanded. By 2016, MATLAB had introduced several technical and user interface improvements, including the MATLAB Live Editor notebook, and other features.


title: MATLAB

text: The MATLAB application is built around the MATLAB programming language. Common usage of the MATLAB application involves using the "Command Window" as an interactive mathematical shell or executing text files containing MATLAB code.


title: MATLAB

text: Variables are defined using the assignment operator, codice_1. MATLAB is a weakly typed programming language because types are implicitly converted. It is an inferred typed language because variables can be assigned without declaring their type, except if they are to be treated as symbolic objects, and that their type can change. Values can come from constants, from computation involving values of other variables, or from the output of a function. For example:


title: MATLAB

text: A simple array is defined using the colon syntax: "initial"codice_2"increment"codice_2"terminator". For instance:


title: MATLAB

text: defines a variable named codice_4 (or assigns a new value to an existing variable with the name codice_4) which is an array consisting of the values 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9. That is, the array starts at 1 (the "initial" value), increments with each step from the previous value by 2 (the "increment" value), and stops once it reaches (or is about to exceed) 9 (the "terminator" value).


title: MATLAB

text: The "increment" value can actually be left out of this syntax (along with one of the colons), to use a default value of 1.


title: MATLAB

text: assigns to the variable named codice_6 an array with the values 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, since the default value of 1 is used as the increment.


title: MATLAB

text: Indexing is one-based, which is the usual convention for matrices in mathematics, unlike zero-based indexing commonly used in other programming languages such as C, C++, and Java.


title: MATLAB

text: Matrices can be defined by separating the elements of a row with blank space or comma and using a semicolon to terminate each row. The list of elements should be surrounded by square brackets codice_7. Parentheses codice_8 are used to access elements and subarrays (they are also used to denote a function argument list).


title: MATLAB

text: Sets of indices can be specified by expressions such as codice_9, which evaluates to codice_10. For example, a submatrix taken from rows 2 through 4 and columns 3 through 4 can be written as:


title: MATLAB

text: A square identity matrix of size "n" can be generated using the function codice_11, and matrices of any size with zeros or ones can be generated with the functions codice_12 and codice_13, respectively.


title: MATLAB

text: Transposing a vector or a matrix is done either by the function codice_14 or by adding dot-prime after the matrix (without the dot, prime will perform conjugate transpose for complex arrays):


title: MATLAB

text: Most functions accept arrays as input and operate element-wise on each element. For example, codice_15 will multiply every element in "J" by 2, and then reduce each element modulo "n". MATLAB does include standard codice_16 and codice_17 loops, but (as in other similar applications such as R), using the vectorized notation is encouraged and is often faster to execute. The following code, excerpted from the function "magic.m", creates a magic square "M" for odd values of "n" (MATLAB function codice_18 is used here to generate square matrices "I" and "J" containing "1:n"):


title: MATLAB

text: MATLAB supports structure data types. Since all variables in MATLAB are arrays, a more adequate name is "structure array", where each element of the array has the same field names. In addition, MATLAB supports dynamic field names (field look-ups by name, field manipulations, etc.).


title: MATLAB

text: When creating a MATLAB function, the name of the file should match the name of the first function in the file. Valid function names begin with an alphabetic character, and can contain letters, numbers, or underscores. Variables and functions are case sensitive.


title: MATLAB

text: MATLAB supports elements of lambda calculus by introducing function handles, or function references, which are implemented either in .m files or anonymous/nested functions.


title: MATLAB

text: MATLAB supports object-oriented programming including classes, inheritance, virtual dispatch, packages, pass-by-value semantics, and pass-by-reference semantics. However, the syntax and calling conventions are significantly different from other languages. MATLAB has value classes and reference classes, depending on whether the class has "handle" as a super-class (for reference classes) or not (for value classes).


title: MATLAB

text: Method call behavior is different between value and reference classes. For example, a call to a method:


title: MATLAB

text: can alter any member of "object" only if "object" is an instance of a reference class, otherwise value class methods must return a new instance if it needs to modify the object.


title: MATLAB

text: MATLAB has tightly integrated graph-plotting features. For example, the function "plot" can be used to produce a graph from two vectors "x" and "y". The code:


title: MATLAB

text: MATLAB supports developing graphical user interface (GUI) applications. UIs can be generated either programmatically or using visual design environments such as "GUIDE" and "App Designer".


title: MATLAB

text: MATLAB can call functions and subroutines written in the programming languages C or Fortran. A wrapper function is created allowing MATLAB data types to be passed and returned. MEX files (MATLAB executables) are the dynamically loadable object files created by compiling such functions. Since 2014 increasing two-way interfacing with Python was being added.


title: MATLAB

text: Libraries written in Perl, Java, ActiveX or .NET can be directly called from MATLAB, and many MATLAB libraries (for example XML or SQL support) are implemented as wrappers around Java or ActiveX libraries. Calling MATLAB from Java is more complicated, but can be done with a MATLAB toolbox which is sold separately by MathWorks, or using an undocumented mechanism called JMI (Java-to-MATLAB Interface), (which should not be confused with the unrelated Java Metadata Interface that is also called JMI). Official MATLAB API for Java was added in 2016.


title: MATLAB

text: As alternatives to the MuPAD based Symbolic Math Toolbox available from MathWorks, MATLAB can be connected to Maple or Mathematica.


title: MATLAB

text: While MATLAB is the most popular commercial numerical computation software package, other alternatives are available, such as the open source computation language GNU Octave, the statistics programming language R, the computing environment Maple, and the computational language Julia. However, Python with its numerous libraries for numerical applications (NumPy, SciPy, Matplotlib, etc.) and high flexibility as a fully extendable multiplatform scripting language is likely the by far most important and widely used alternative today.


title: MATLAB

text: In 2020, MATLAB withdrew services from two Chinese universities as a result of US sanctions. The universities said this will be responded to by increased use of open-source alternatives and by developing domestic alternatives.


title: MATLAB

text: MATLAB is updated twice per year. In addition to new features and other improvements, each release has new bug fixes and smaller changes.


title: MATLAB

text: The number (or release number) is the version reported by Concurrent License Manager program FLEXlm. For a complete list of changes of both MATLAB and official toolboxes, consult the MATLAB release notes.