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Introduction
In late 1970s Pakistan was under the menace of political instability that attracted the attention of the then military chief, General ZiaulHaq for imposing Martial Law for the third time in July, 1977. Zia exploited the situation that later proved supportive for him to rule Pakistan for almost 11 years. He began devising various plans to overcome the country for long time. ‘Operation Fairplay'was one of the most important plansof Zia to legitimize the authority.Notably, June 1977 experienced a blend of problems which could bring Pakistan into a civil war. General ZiaulHaq met Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto on his wish to discuss the deteriorated situation of the country. Lt. General Sawar Khan, Lt. General Chishti, Lt. General Ghulam Hassan, Lt. General Iqbal and Lt. General JahanzebArbab were also the participants of the discussion. Rigging in the elections was discussed in the meeting.
When General Ghulam Hassan presented the evidence of rigging, Bhutto shouted, hammered the table and negated the assessment of the General about the rigging. This act of Bhutto infuriated the military leadership.1 Chaotic situation, created by the PPP leadership,forced General ZiaulHaq to call a meeting at the evening of 4th July, 1977 in the General Headquarters. The agenda of the meeting wasto cope with the unsatisfactory law and order situation in the country. After concluding the meeting Zia compelled the top Brass to act and take some sort of action to avert the damage to the national stability and security. All the famous political leaders, including Bhutto, were arrested under the banner of ‘protective custody'. The code name of that military operation was finalised as ‘Operation Fairplay' that began at the night of 4th July and ended with the morning of 5th July, 1977.
Martial Law had been declared throughout the country and later on ZiaulHaq sworn in as the President of Pakistan on September 16, 1978. He appointed military officials as provincial governors; General SadiqAbbasi, Governor of Sind, Major General Rafaqat, Governor of NWPF, General Raheem-u-Din, Governor of Baluchistan and Lt. General Sawar Khan, Governor of Punjab.2 When FazulElahiChohadry completed his extended term in September, 1978 as the President, most of the advisors around Zia thought that he should become President just to reject the mercy petition unilaterally, filed by Bhutto (as...