Word: zia
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...that leading a rally is not permitted in Pakistan. Today the government is coming out with its true colors." Thus was Opposition Leader Benazir Bhutto, 33, the popular daughter of the late Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, arrested in a sudden return of repression by President Mohammed Zia ul-Haq. It was a backward step after what had seemed like a gradual revival of democracy in Pakistan this year...
Since her return from exile last April, the charismatic leader of the Pakistan People's Party has been trying to force a confrontation with Zia and Prime Minister Mohammed Khan Junejo, who assumed office last year after elections that were boycotted by most of the country's political parties. Bhutto roused huge crowds with calls for new elections and the resignation of Zia, who has insisted on remaining the unelected President until 1990, permitting no elections to the National Assembly until then...
Last week Junejo decided that enough was enough. He banned political rallies marking Independence Day, including those by his own party, the Pakistan Muslim League. Zia, who was away on a pilgrimage to Mecca, almost certainly had a role in the decision. When the opposition ignored the ban, police arrested hundreds of Bhutto's advisers and political allies in predawn raids around the country. Opposition supporters in Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad surged into the streets, where they were met by riot squads and tear gas. In Lahore, beleaguered police fired into a crowd, killing four and wounding dozens...
...rioting appears to have changed Pakistan's political course. Junejo and Zia will have difficulty defending the crackdown, a necessity for winning support in the U.S. Congress, which is considering the Reagan Administration's $4.02 billion aid package for Islamabad. Meanwhile, Benazir Bhutto's efforts to force the government's hand may spark more bloodshed, possibly creating the same type of social unrest that led to Zia's military coup...
Throughout the campaign, Ershad made it clear that he would brook no nonsense from his adversaries. When one opposition leader, Begum Khaleda Zia, the widow of a former President who was slain in an attempted military coup in 1981, called for an election boycott and seemed to hint that the armed forces should distance themselves from the government, Ershad slapped her under virtual house arrest. He then declared that anyone urging a boycott would go to prison for up to seven years...