page_title: History of Pakistan (1947–present)
section_title: 1977–1988: Second military era
hierarchical_section_title: History of Pakistan (1947–present) / 1977–1988: Second military era
caption_attribution_description: English: Benazir Bhutto speaking on June 5, 1989. Benazir Bhutto, third from right, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, holding her son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari as she speaks to some of the officials on hand to greet her as she arrives at Andrews Air Force Base for a state visit.
context_page_description: The history of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan began on 14 August 1947 when the country became an independent nation in the form of Dominion of Pakistan within the British Commonwealth as the result of Pakistan Movement and the partition of India. While the history of the Pakistani Nation according to the Pakistan government's official chronology started with the Islamic rule over Indian subcontinent by Muhammad bin Qasim which reached its zenith during Mughal Era. In 1947, Pakistan consisted of West Pakistan and East Pakistan. The President of All-India Muslim League and later the Pakistan Muslim League, Muhammad Ali Jinnah became Governor-General while the secretary general of the Muslim League, Liaquat Ali Khan became Prime Minister. The constitution of 1956 made Pakistan an Islamic democratic country.
  Pakistan faced a civil war and Indian military intervention in 1971 resulting in the secession of East Pakistan as the new country of Bangladesh. The country has also unresolved territorial disputes with India, resulting in four conflicts. Pakistan was closely tied to the United States in Cold War.
context_section_description: This period of military rule, lasting from 1977 to 1988, is often regarded as a period of persecution and the growth of state-sponsored religious conservatism. Zia-ul-Haq committed himself to establishing an Islamic state and enforcing sharia law. He established separate shariat judicial courts and court benches to judge legal cases using Islamic doctrine. New criminal offences of adultery, fornication and types of blasphemy, and new punishments of whipping, amputation, and stoning to death, were added to Pakistani law. Interest payments for bank accounts were replaced by "profit and loss" payments. Zakat charitable donations became a 2.5% annual tax. School textbooks and libraries were overhauled to remove un-Islamic material.  Offices, schools and factories were required to offer prayer space. Zia bolstered the influence of the Islamic clergy and the Islamic parties, whilst conservative scholars became fixtures on television. Thousands of activists from the Jamaat-e-Islami party were appointed to government posts to ensure the continuation of his agenda after his death. Conservative Islamic scholars were appointed to the Council of Islamic Ideology. Separate electorates for Hindus and Christians were established in 1985 even though Christian and Hindu leaders complained that they felt excluded from the county's political process. Zia's state-sponsored Islamization increased sectarian divisions in Pakistan between Sunnis and Shias due to his anti-Shia policies and also between Deobandis and Barelvis. Zia-ul-Haq forged a strong alliance between the military and Deobandi institutions. Possible motivations for the Islamization programme included Zia's personal piety (most accounts agree that he came from a religious family), his desire to gain political allies, to "fulfill Pakistan's raison d'être" as a Muslim state, or the political need to legitimise what was seen by some Pakistanis as his "repressive, un-representative martial law regime".
  President Zia's long eleven-year rule featured the country's first successful technocracy. It also featured the tug of war between far-leftist forces in direct competition with populist far-right circles. President Zia installed many high-profile military officers in civilian posts, ranging from central to provisional governments. Gradually the influence of socialism in public policies was dismantled. Instead a new system of capitalism was revived with the introduction of corporatisation and the Islamization of the economy. The populist movement against Bhutto scattered, with far right-wing conservatives allying with General Zia's government and encouraging the military government to crack down on pro-Soviet left-wing elements. The left-wing alliance, led by Benazir Bhutto, was brutalised by Zia who took aggressive measures against the movement. Further secessionist uprisings in Balochistan were put down successfully by the provincial governor, General Rahimuddin Khan. In 1984, Zia held a referendum asking for support for his religious programme; he received overwhelming support.
  After Zia assumed power, Pakistan's relations with the Soviet Union deteriorated and Zia strove for strong relations with the United States. After the Soviet Union's intervention in Afghanistan President Ronald Reagan immediately moved to help Zia supply and finance an anti-Soviet insurgency. Zia's military administration effectively handled national security matters and managed multibillion-dollars of aid from the United States. Millions of Afghan refugees poured into the country, fleeing the Soviet occupation and atrocities. Some estimate that the Soviet troops killed up to 2 million Afghans and raped many Afghan women. It was the largest refugee population in the world at the time, which had a heavy impact on Pakistan. Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province became a base for the anti-Soviet Afghan fighters, with the province's influential Deobandi ulama playing a significant role in encouraging and organising the jihad against the Soviet forces. In retaliation the Afghan secret police carried out a large 
caption: Benazir Bhutto in the US in 1988. Bhutto became the first female prime minister of Pakistan in 1988.
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