PESHAWAR: A senior lawyer has moved Peshawar High Court to seek direction for the federal government to exhume remains of former president Gen Ziaul Haq from Islamabad Faisal Mosque and bury it in a graveyard of CDA.

Former deputy attorney general Mohammad Khursheed Khan filed a writ petition, requesting the court to declare the burial of Gen Ziaul Haq on premises of Faisal Mosque as illegal and un-Islamic as because of his ‘wrong’ policies the country had plunged into different crises from which it had yet to recover.

The respondents in the petition are: federal interior secretary, Capital Development Authority chairman and federal law secretary. The petitioner states that Faisal Mosque was constructed on funds provided by government of Saudi Arabia and Gen Ziaul Haq was buried on its premises.

He contends that Gen Ziaul Haq had overthrown an elected government in 1977 and imposed martial law. He added that for prolonging his illegal rule, he had pushed the country into Afghan war for appeasing the US.

The petitioner states that because of that wrong policy, millions of Afghan refugees migrated to Pakistan, which not only badly affected economy of the country but also resulted into multiple social problems including the introduction of Kalashnikov culture and drug trafficking.

He claims that in the name of jihad, militants came to Pakistan from across the world and for them money and weapons were provided by the US. He added that Gen Zia had produced so-called mujahideen in a large number.

The petitioner states that in 1985, the former military ruler had conducted non-party elections that resulted into creation of a parliament comprising non-political people and for the first time horse-trading of elected people took place. He adds that Gen Zia executed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was the architect of 1973 Constitution of Pakistan, and had also abrogated the constitution.

Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2019