@noahrocklin: This isn’t very good, but it’s going to get so so much worse. #funny #pakistan #zia #ziaulhaq #bhutto Works cited:     1    Kiessling, H. G. (2023). Faith, unity, discipline. Oxford University Press.     2    Haqqani, H. (2005). Pakistan : Between mosque and military. Brookings Institution Press.     3    Fathers, M. (1998, August 17). The Independent archive: Obituary: President Mohammad Zia ul-Haq | The Independent. The Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/the-independent-archive-obituary-president-mohammad-zia-ulhaq-1172451.html     4    Saad Ullah, M. (2017, August 18). Everything you need to know about Zia’s tenure. The Nation. https://www.nation.com.pk/21-Aug-2017/zia-ul-haq?show=     5    Francis, Y. (2024, April 17). How the Supreme Court of Pakistan has legitimized every military coup under the doctrine of necessity. Live Law. Livelaw.In. https://www.livelaw.in/articles/supreme-court-pakistan-legitimized-military-coup-doctrine-necessity-255288

TM :

He safeguarded and accelerated Pakistan’s nuclear program (initiated under Bhutto), taking it to weapons-grade capability by the mid-1980s while publicly denying it and shielding the effort from external pressure—including potential Indian or Israeli strikes. The Afghan resistance role gave leverage that helped keep US non-proliferation pressure at bay. Pakistan received major US military aid, including F-16 fighters, which modernized the air force and strengthened overall conventional capabilities. The army and air force were expanded and re-equipped during this period. On the economy: average GDP growth ran about 6.5–6.7% annually—among the highest in South Asia at the time and well above India’s. Worker remittances, Afghan-related inflows, and agricultural recovery helped drive it. Pakistan’s GDP per capita was higher than India’s (and Bangladesh’s) through much of the 1980s. He was no American puppet. Pakistan leveraged the US–Soviet confrontation in Afghanistan for its own strategic interests—aid, equipment, and space to advance the nuclear program—rather than simply serving Washington’s agenda.

X_Sabtien :

He also made Pakistan a nuclear power, he was good at playing both sides, intelligent man

Soaseco :

Bhutto was a fake Socialist. The CIA deposed him merely for faking Socialism. If anything Zia very conclusively proves how Wahabism/Salafism and all these post-colonial Islam-esque reform movements, are actually only proxies for neoliberal capitalism.

Shaleaz Sajid :

i hate him

میاں حارث نسیم 🦁🦅 :

Great man ❤️RIP

momina४⎕ :

Hateeeeee him

Anush :

Zia goated

محمد أحمد.٢٤ :

not a dictator bro what

Triple GGG :

My Gee

Kaii :

yahoos :

LMAOOO 😭😭😭

Farhaan :

Tbf most of the country did support him

Toowkd4u :

He’s the guy that started the trend for sucking up to America.

-e- :

Wanted to properly islamise Pakistan , still shaved his own beard and kept an untrimmed moustache

shaista :

hope he is suffering for what he left behind

Dramabaz :

Vile

brooklyn_kellysf :

Same guy

pakalachian :

I went to school with his grandson, Omar. He was cool. We were in elementary school and completely clueless about who his grandpa was.

Bikus :

Chief $epoy of the Royal Indus Regiment maintaining and enforcing Britain's Russophobic Victorian era foreign policy in Afghanistan and Indus valley for a fistful of dollars and a few dollars 💸 more.

Naveed Beg :

The one thing I will say is that under Zia there was rule of law. You didn't have all these political parties going to war with one another after he was gone. Pakistan needs to be ruled with an iron fist and there's simply too much corruption

corrvpted :

wallahi dream leader

TM :

Black September was Jordan’s military crackdown on armed PLO groups that had built a parallel power structure and challenged King Hussein’s rule (with leftist factions and a brief Syrian armored push). Pakistani officers, including Brig. Zia-ul-Haq, were in Jordan on a post-1967 training/advisory mission—not a combat regiment. Zia exceeded that mandate by advising the king and temporarily helping command Jordanian armor against the Syrian intervention. The actual fighting and the outcome were Jordanian. Inflating this into “Pak Army under Zia massacred tens of thousands of Palestinians” is propaganda. A Pakistani diplomat who was present (Tayyab Siddiqui) described Zia being asked early in the crisis (around 2 September) to take temporary command of a Jordanian division near Irbid after its commander deserted; the Syrian armor later pulled back under external pressure.

Good Twill Hunting :

He sucks but you’re a white dude criticizing his appearance with your train tracks comment.

fuzzy :

American puppet