ABSTRACT

In 1977 the military seized power under circumstances which differed fundamentally from those prevailing in 1958. Unlike Ayub, Zia had deposed an elected civilian government, an act of treason under the '73 Constitution. In addition, the military no longer commanded the public prestige that it enjoyed when Ayub had stepped in to oust a weak, incompetent and unrepresentative government. Pakistan had experienced thirteen years of military rule which had culminated in a civil war. The military bore the stigma of responsibility for the shame and humiliation of 1971. Both these factors accentuated the need for the army to redefine its role in society in order to acquire the legitimacy to govern. The ideological imperatives for justifying the usurpation of power led the army to seek a remedy in the conversion of Pakistan into a theocratic state. The structural changes necessary for such a mutation will be examined later. The context is provided by the following summary of political events between 1977 and 1985.