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Summary General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq died in an air crash near Bahawalpur on August 17, 1988.
Zia was born in Jalandhar, British India, in 1924. After graduation, Zia joined the British Indian Army in 1943.He married ShafiqJahan in 1951. One of his sons Muhammad Ijaz-ul-Haq went into politics becoming a cabinet minister in the government of Nawaz Sharif.Superseding seven generals, he was appointed Chief of Army Staff in 1976 by then prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.But he toppled the government of Bhutto on 5 July 1977 and imposed martial law and became the third military ruler of the country. He initially ruled as chief martial law administrator, but later installed himself as the President of Pakistan in September 1978.Zia died along with several of his top generals and then United States ambassador to Pakistan Arnold Lewis Raphel in a suspicious aircraft crash near Bahawalpur on 17 August 1988.The causes of the crash are still unknown.
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