[sadia rizvi]

General Zia Ul haq and General Pervaiz Musharif used Islam as a shield for protecting their rule. General Zia Ul Haq after taking over the charge as chief executive of civil as well as military organs, founded a factory of ordinance and acts on the wishes and will of Muslim clerics. The Majlis e Shoora(Parliament) consisting of handpicked un elected people rather unworthy of being elected, started stamping the ordinances of Zia Ul Haq as laws and also gave great leeway for Zia Ul Haq to corrupt the constitution of Pakistan, the scared document of the Pakistani nation. Consequently, many corruptions in the name of Islamization were made in the constitution as well as in the name criminal law of the country. During General Zia’s regime, the true spirit of 1973 Constitution was badly undermined; lots of undemocratic amendments were made to perpetuate the autocratic regimes, Article 58-2b has been used as a political weapon to destabilise democratically elected governments. Unfortunatly, establishment’s intervention has not allowed nurturing the democratic process in Pakistan. Nawaz Sharif extended Zia’s program of Islamization. In 1991 the government passed the Shariat Law the required the laws of Pakistan to be consistent with the holly Qurran and Islamic precepts. There were more fundamentalist parties which were members of his coalition (IJI) that demanded such measures. Mian Nawaz Sharif has, throughout his political career, by and large shown little respect for constitution, parliament and democratic norms and traditions. Because of these ‘virtues’ (lack of respect towards constitution, parliament and democracy), the nation always regarded him as a true heir of General Zia-ul-Haq.