- How General Zia-ul-Haq Reshaped Pakistan Through Ideology, Religion, and Public Consent
- By: Irfan Khan
- irfankhansherani046@gmail.com
For decades, General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq’s rule has been examined mainly through political and historical perspectives. However, understanding his era requires more than a discussion of martial law or military authority. His government also transformed Pakistan’s ideological, cultural, and social landscape by reshaping public beliefs, values, and perceptions. This article examines Zia’s rule through the lens of Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci’s theory of Cultural Hegemony.
- Pakistan’s Contemporary Challenges and Their Historical Roots
Pakistan today faces political instability, religious extremism, terrorism, economic crises, and sectarian conflict. Many analysts argue that the roots of these problems can be traced to policies introduced during General Zia-ul-Haq’s regime. Therefore, understanding that period requires not only political and historical analysis but also an ideological and cultural examination. Unlike many military rulers, Zia did not rely solely on military force to govern. Instead, he sought to reshape public thinking so that people would willingly accept and legitimize his rule.
- Power Does Not Rule Through Guns Alone
Many people believe dictatorships survive because of the army, police, and courts. Antonio Gramsci, however, argued that governments remain in power for long periods only when people themselves begin to accept the state’s ideas and values as natural and legitimate. According to Gramsci, governments manufacture public consent through institutions such as religion, education, the media, schools, universities, intellectuals, and cultural traditions. General Zia-ul-Haq effectively adopted this strategy during his rule.
- Political Islamization Becomes State Policy
Pakistan has always been a deeply religious society where religion strongly shapes public opinion and emotions. Although previous governments also used religion for political purposes, Zia institutionalized this approach more systematically than any of his predecessors. Under the banner of Islamization, his government introduced legal reforms, revised educational curricula, transformed the media, strengthened religious political parties, and portrayed the Afghan Jihad as an Islamic obligation. Consequently, many citizens came to believe that supporting the government was equivalent to supporting Islam itself.
- Understanding Antonio Gramsci’s Theory
Antonio Gramsci was an Italian Marxist philosopher and politician who opposed Benito Mussolini’s Fascist government. During his imprisonment, he wrote the famous Prison Notebooks, where he developed the theory of Cultural Hegemony. According to Gramsci, governments cannot depend solely on military or police power. Long-term political stability requires winning people’s minds by promoting ideas that gradually become accepted as common sense. When a government repeatedly declares that it represents true Islam, genuine patriotism, and the national interest, and these messages are constantly repeated by schools, television, newspapers, religious scholars, and other influential institutions, people eventually begin to regard these ideas as their own. This gradual ideological domination is what Gramsci described as Cultural Hegemony.
- Political Society and Civil Society
Gramsci described Political Society as the institutions that possess legitimate coercive authority, including the government, military, police, judiciary, and bureaucracy. These institutions maintain order and protect state authority through the use or threat of force whenever necessary. In contrast, Civil Society consists of institutions formally separate from government but highly influential in shaping public opinion. These include teachers, schools, universities, newspapers, media organizations, religious institutions, and intellectuals. Through these institutions people develop ideas about morality, justice, patriotism, and acceptable social behaviour. General Zia-ul-Haq effectively utilized these institutions to build public consent and strengthen the legitimacy of his government.
- Manufactured Consent
One of Gramsci’s most influential concepts is Manufactured Consent, whereby governments persuade citizens to support state policies through ideological, cultural, and social institutions. During Zia’s regime, this consent was created through religious sermons, educational curricula, state-controlled television and radio, speeches by religious scholars, and the broader narrative of Islamization. Together these institutions promoted the belief that opposing the government was equivalent to opposing Islam itself.
- Pakistan as an Ideological State
Pakistan is more than a geographical entity; it was founded as an ideological state based on the Two-Nation Theory, which argued that Muslims of the Indian subcontinent constituted a separate nation requiring an independent homeland. After independence, Muhammad Ali Jinnah envisioned Pakistan as a country where all citizens would enjoy equal rights and religious freedom regardless of their faith. Over time, however, religion became increasingly intertwined with state politics, gradually transforming the country’s political environment.
- Religion and Politics Before Zia
Religion entered mainstream politics long before General Zia-ul-Haq. The 1956 Constitution declared Pakistan the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, making religion an integral part of state affairs. Successive governments also used religion politically. During the 1965 presidential election, President Ayub Khan reportedly encouraged certain religious scholars to issue a fatwa arguing that a woman could not rule an Islamic state, thereby weakening Fatima Jinnah’s campaign. This demonstrates that religion had been employed for political purposes even before Zia assumed power.
- The Political Environment of the 1970s
The 1970s witnessed profound political transformation in Pakistan and across the wider region. Religious politics gained momentum throughout the Middle East, the Cold War reached its height, the Soviet Union intervened in Afghanistan, and Pakistan experienced growing political instability. In 1977, General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq overthrew the elected government of Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and imposed martial law. These developments created the conditions in which Zia’s ideological project could emerge.
- The Challenges Facing General Zia-ul-Haq
Upon assuming power, Zia faced two major challenges. First, because he had seized power through a military coup rather than democratic elections, his government lacked popular legitimacy. He therefore needed to secure public acceptance in order to strengthen his authority. Second, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan created an opportunity to gain international support. The United States sought Pakistan’s assistance in supporting the Afghan Mujahideen against the Soviet Union. Zia presented the Afghan conflict not merely as a geopolitical struggle but as an Islamic duty. Consequently, Pakistan received strong American support, religious political parties aligned themselves with the government, and public support for the regime increased significantly. This became a practical example of Gramsci’s concept of Manufactured Consent.
- Religious Intellectuals and State Policy
According to Gramsci, Civil Society includes institutions that shape public beliefs outside formal government structures. During Zia’s rule, religious scholars and institutions acquired unprecedented influence. Through mosques, religious schools, educational institutions, state media, and public sermons, Islam became deeply integrated into government policy. Government decisions increasingly appeared not simply as political measures but as religious obligations. Educational curricula gave greater emphasis to jihad, Islamic history, and religious values. Religious programming expanded on state television and radio, while newspapers and other media outlets faced strict censorship to suppress criticism. In this manner, religious institutions and scholars helped legitimize state policies.
- Political Society Under Martial Law
Under Zia-ul-Haq, the military became the dominant institution within the state. Martial law restricted political activity, opposition leaders were arrested, newspapers were censored, and critics of the government faced legal and political repression. Nevertheless, the regime relied not only on coercion but also on ideological persuasion by presenting itself as the defender of Islam. Thus, force and consent operated together, precisely as Gramsci’s theory predicts.
- Passive Revolution
Gramsci described Passive Revolution as major political and social changes introduced from above without meaningful public participation. Many Islamization policies reflected this concept. The Hudood Ordinances, the Zakat and Ushr System, the establishment of the Federal Shariat Court, educational reforms, and other Islamic legislation were implemented through state authority rather than democratic consultation. Although these reforms were presented as the implementation of an Islamic system, ordinary citizens played little role in shaping or approving them.
- Counter-Hegemony and the Historic Bloc
Gramsci believed that no hegemonic order remains unchallenged. During Zia-ul-Haq’s rule, political parties, lawyers, journalists, student organizations, labour unions, and human rights groups resisted military rule. However, censorship, arrests, and political repression prevented these groups from dismantling the regime’s ideological dominance. Gramsci also introduced the concept of the Historic Bloc, referring to an alliance of social and political forces united by a common ideology. During Zia’s rule, the military, religious political parties, sections of the religious establishment, the bureaucracy, and international support—particularly from the United States during the Afghan Jihad—formed such a bloc, reinforcing both political authority and ideological legitimacy.
- Analysis
Viewed through Antonio Gramsci’s theory of Cultural Hegemony, General Zia-ul-Haq’s government was not merely a military dictatorship. It represented a comprehensive ideological project that combined religion, education, the media, the judiciary, and state institutions to manufacture public consent. Through Islamization, the regime portrayed itself as the guardian of Islam, persuading a significant segment of society that supporting the government meant supporting religion itself. Gramsci’s framework therefore suggests that Zia’s government endured not only because of military coercion but also because it successfully produced public consent. The long-term consequences of this ideological transformation continue to influence Pakistan’s political culture, religious discourse, educational institutions, and state structure. Understanding these developments remains essential for explaining many of Pakistan’s contemporary political and social challenges.