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Pakistan
Index
When Zia assumed power in mid-1977, Pakistan was out of
the
limelight and indeed was considered by some observers to
be a
political backwater. By the time of Zia's death in 1988,
it had,
because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979,
become an
important actor occupying a central position in the world
arena.
Although Zulifqar Ali Bhutto had tried to redirect
Pakistan's
regional orientation toward West Asia and Zia continued
this
trend, the nation's geostrategic interests dictated a
concentration on South Asia. Pakistan's foreign policy was
very
much centered on India. Less than two years after Zia's
assumption of power, Congress, led by Indira Gandhi, was
voted
out of office and replaced by the Janata Party, whose
foreign
minister was Atal Behari Vajpayee of the Jana Sangh, long
seen as
anti-Pakistan. Nonetheless, relations between Pakistan and
India
may have reached their most cordial level during the
almost three
years Janata was in power. Vajpayee visited Pakistan in
February
1978. There were exchanges on many issues, and agreements
were
signed on trade, cultural exchanges, and
communications--but not
on such key issues as Kashmir and nuclear development.
The nuclear issue was of critical importance to both
Pakistan
and India. In 1974 India successfully tested a nuclear
"device."
Bhutto reacted strongly to this test and said Pakistan
must
develop its own "Islamic bomb." Zia thus inherited a
pledge that
for domestic reasons he could not discard, and he
continued the
development program. He asked India to agree to several
steps to
end this potential nuclear arms race on the subcontinent.
One of
these measures was the simultaneous signing of the Treaty
on the
Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The second step was
a joint
agreement for inspection of all nuclear sites by the
International Atomic Energy Agency. Pakistan also proposed
a pact
between the two countries to allow for mutual inspection
of
sites. And, finally, Pakistan proposed a South Asian
nuclear-free
zone. It appeared that Zia was looking for a way to
terminate the
costly Pakistani program. But in order to sell this idea
in
Pakistan, he required some concessions from India.
Termination
would also get him out of difficulties the program was
causing
with the United States, including the curtailment of aid
in 1979.
These proposals were still on the table in the early
1990s, and
were supplemented by then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's
call for
a roundtable discussion among Pakistan, India, the United
States,
Russia, and China on nuclear weapons in South Asia
(see
The Armed Forces in a New World Order
, ch. 5).
Not all relations within South Asia were negative.
President
Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh proposed an organization for
South
Asian cooperation. Pakistan was at first reluctant,
fearing
Indian domination, but eventually agreed to join the
group, along
with Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri
Lanka.
The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
(SAARC--see Glossary)
was formally inaugurated at a summit meeting in
Dhaka
in 1985. There have been some positive steps toward
cooperation,
and regular rotating summits are held, although often with
some
delays.
Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi of India (1984-89) came to
Islamabad in 1988 to attend a SAARC summit, the first
visit of an
Indian prime minister since 1960, when Nehru visited to
sign the
Indus Waters Treaty. Zia stopped briefly in New Delhi in
December
1985 and in February 1987 visited again, having invited
himself
to see a cricket match between the two countries. Zia's
estimation was that he and Rajiv could meet quite
cordially but
could not agree on substantive issues.
Active and potential conflict continued to be a
constant
factor in Pakistan's relations with India. The dispute
over the
precise demarcation of the Line of Control in Kashmir at
the
Siachen Glacier heated up periodically and over time
caused
substantial casualties on both sides because of numerous
small
skirmishes and the extreme cold in the remote area. Also,
in the
1986-87 winter the Indian army conducted Operation Brass
Tacks,
maneuvers close to the Pakistan border, and Pakistan
mobilized
its forces. However, the dangerous situation was defused,
and no
hostilities took place. India accused Pakistan of aiding
Sikh
insurgents in India's state of Punjab. Pakistan denied
this
accusation, but some people thought that Operation Brass
Tacks
might have been a means to strike at alleged bases in
Pakistan's
Punjab Province. Zia skillfully handled the diplomacy
during the
period of tension
(see Pakistan Becomes a Frontline State
, ch.
5).
Zia continued the process, begun by Bhutto, of opening
Pakistan to the West and drew on Pakistan's Islamic,
trade, and
military ties to the Middle East. Military ties included
stationing Pakistani troops in Saudi Arabia and training
missions
in several other countries. Remittances from Pakistanis
employed
as migrant workers in the Middle East, especially in the
Persian
Gulf area, increased during the Zia years and became an
important
factor in Pakistan's foreign-exchange holdings
(see Labor
, ch.
3).
Zia played a prominent role in the Organization of the
Islamic Conference (OIC). A Pakistani was secretary
general of
the OIC, and Zia served on committees concerning the
status of
Jerusalem and the settlement of the Iran-Iraq War
(1980-88),
neither of which were successful. At the 1984 summit at
Casablanca, he played a key role in the readmission of
Egypt to
the OIC and, in doing so, reminded his fellow heads of
government
that the organization was one for the entire Muslim
community and
not only for Arab states.
The United States under the administration of Jimmy
Carter
did not welcome the displacement of Bhutto by Zia;
representative
government, human rights, and nuclear nonproliferation
were also
of concern to Carter. The execution of Bhutto only added
to the
United States displeasure with Zia and Pakistan. In March
1979,
Pakistan--and Iran--terminated their membership in CENTO.
A number of United States laws, amendments to the
Foreign
Assistance Act of 1961, applied to Pakistan and its
program of
nuclear weapons development. The 1976 Symington Amendment
stipulated that economic assistance be terminated to any
country
that imported uranium enrichment technology. The Glenn
Amendment
of 1977 similarly called for an end to aid to countries
that
imported reprocessing technology--Pakistan had from
France.
United States economic assistance, except for food aid,
was
terminated under the Symington Amendment in April 1979. In
1985
the Solarz Amendment was added to prohibit aid to
countries that
attempt to import nuclear commodities from the United
States. In
the same year, the Pressler Amendment was passed;
referring
specifically to Pakistan, it said that if that nation
possessed a
nuclear device, aid would be suspended. Many of these
amendments
could be waived if the president declared that it was in
the
national interests of the United States to continue
assistance.
The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in December 1979,
causing a sudden reversal of United States policy. Carter,
who
had described Pakistan as a "frontline state" in the Cold
War,
offered US$400 million in military and economic aid to
Pakistan--
an amount that Zia spurned and contemptuously termed
"peanuts."
When the Ronald Reagan administration took office in
January
1981, the level of assistance increased substantially.
Presidential waivers for several of the amendments were
required.
The initial package from the United States was for US$3.2
billion
over six years, equally divided between economic and
military
assistance. A separate arrangement was made for the
purchase of
forty F-16 fighter aircraft. In 1986 a follow-on program
of
assistance over a further period of six years was
announced at a
total of more than US$4 billion, of which 57 percent was
economic
aid and the rest military aid.
The Soviet Union, meanwhile, under its new leader,
Mikhail S.
Gorbachev, was reassessing its role in Afghanistan.
Indirect
"proximity" negotiations in Geneva under the auspices of
the UN
were going on between Afghanistan and Pakistan with the
United
States and the Soviet Union as observers. In April 1988, a
series
of agreements were signed among the United States, the
Soviet
Union, Pakistan, and Afghanistan that called for the
withdrawal
of Soviet forces by mid-February 1989. The withdrawal was
completed on time.
Throughout the years of Soviet occupation of
Afghanistan,
relations between the United States and Pakistan were best
characterized by close cooperation. Still, United States
policy
makers became increasingly concerned that Zia and his
associates-
-most notably, General Akhtar Abdur Rahman, then head of
the
Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence--appeared to
give
preferential treatment to the Islamic fundamentalists,
especially
mujahidin leader Gulbaddin Hikmatyar. Other
disagreements
persisted, particularly over the failure of the Zia regime
to
convert to representative government. Documented Pakistani
violations of human rights were another major issue;
Pakistani
involvement in narcotics trafficking was yet another. But
the
issue that after Zia's death led to another cutoff of aid
was
Pakistan's persistent drive toward nuclear development.
The event of the Zia period brought Pakistan to a
leading
position in world affairs. However, Pakistan's new
visibility was
closely connected to the supportive role it played for the
anti-
Soviet mujahidin in Afghanistan--and this deceased
when
the Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan. In the 1990s,
Pakistan faced some major domestic problems--mounting
ethnic and
sectarian strife as well as widespread civil disorder.
Pakistan
will need to address these problems as it strives to
improve its
international standing as a maturing democratic nation and
one
aspiring to be the industrial and technological leader of
the
Muslim world.
* * *
For the study of the area of present-day Pakistan in
the
preindependence period, one must generally look to
histories of
India. The most recent survey is Stanley Wolpert's A
New
History of India. Published earlier, Percival Spear's
A
History of India (volume 1) and Romila Thapar's A
History
of India (volume 2) provide valuable information.
Vincent
Arthur Smith's The Oxford History of India gives a
detailed account of the preindependence period. Two
dictionaries
that are difficult to obtain are helpful in looking up
specific
places and people: Sachchidananda Bhattacharya's A
Dictionary
of Indian History and Parshotam Mehra's A
Dictionary of
Modern Indian History, 1707-1947. Particularly
valuable is
the monumental A Historical Atlas of South Asia,
edited by
Joseph E. Schwartzberg. Two classic works on the Mughal
period
are Bamber Gascoigne's The Great Moghuls and
Percival
Spear's Twilight of the Mughals. A more recent,
standard
work on the Mughals is John F. Richards's The Mughal
Empire. Books that bring the Muslim movement alive
include
Peter Hardy's The Muslims of British India;
Choudhry
Khaliquzzaman's Pathway to Pakistan; Chaudri
Muhammad
Ali's The Emergence of Pakistan; Gail Minault's
The
Khilafat Movement; David Lelyveld's Aligarh's First
Generation; and R.J. Moore's The Crisis of Indian
Unity,
1917-1940. There is little biographic material except
on
Jinnah: the best are Stanley Wolpert's Jinnah of
Pakistan
and Ayesha Jalal's The Sole Spokesman.
Concerning independent Pakistan during the
parliamentary
period, Keith Callard's Pakistan: A Political Study
and
Richard S. Wheeler's The Politics of Pakistan are
recommended. On Ayub Khan, Lawrence Ziring's The Ayub
Khan
Era is good. Bangladesh: A Country Study,
edited by
James Heitzman and Robert L. Worden, provides an analysis
of the
history of the East Wing of Pakistan (1947-71). The civil
war is
discussed in Craig Baxter's Bangladesh: A New Nation in
an Old
Setting. Bhutto's tenure is described in Shahid Javed
Burki's
Pakistan under Bhutto, 1971-1977 and Stanley
Wolpert's
Zulfi Bhutto of Pakistan: His Life and Times. Zia
ul-Haq's
period is discussed in Shahid Javed Burki and Craig
Baxter's
Pakistan under the Military: Eleven Years of Zia
ul-Haq.
(For further information and complete citations,
see
Bibliography.)
Data as of April 1994
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