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- 1924-1988. Pakistani general, in power from
- 1977 until his death, probably an
- assassination, in an aircraft explosion. He
- became army chief of staff 1976, led the
- military coup against Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto
- 1977, and became president 1978. Zia
- introduced a fundamentalist Islamic regime
- and restricted political activity. Zia was a
- career soldier from a middle-class Punjabi
- Muslim family. As army chief of staff, his
- opposition to the Soviet invasion of
- Afghanistan 1979 drew support from the USA,
- but his refusal to commute the death sentence
- imposed on Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was widely
- condemned. He lifted martial law 1985. The US
- Central Intelligence Agency is widely
- rumoured to have engineered his death.
-