Top Quotes & Sayings by Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq HI, GCSJ, ร.ม.ภ, Ghazi was a Pakistani four-star army general who served as the 2nd Chief of Army Staff of Pakistan Army. Belonging to a Punjabi Arain family, he served as the head of state from 1978 until his death in a plane crash in 1988. He became the sixth President of Pakistan after declaring martial law in 1977. He remains the country's longest-serving head of state for 11 years and Chief of Army Staff for over 12 years. Educated at St. Stephen's College, Delhi and the Indian Military Academy at Dehradun, Zia saw action in World War II as a British Indian Army officer in Burma and Malaya, before opting for Pakistan in 1947 and fighting as a tank commander in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965. In 1970, he led a military training mission to Jordan, proving instrumental to defeating the Black September insurgency against King Hussein. In recognition, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto appointed Zia Chief of Army Staff in 1976 and awarded him the Hilal-i-Imtiaz medal, but Zia executed Bhutto after imposing Martial Law.