Shafiq Zia

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Begum
Shafiq Zia
First Lady of Pakistan
In office
5 July 1977 – 17 August 1988
PresidentMohammad Zia-ul-Haq
Preceded byNusrat Bhutto
Succeeded byShamim Khan
Personal details
Born
Shafiq Jahan

(1931-09-21)21 September 1931
Kampala, Uganda
Died5 January 1996(1996-01-05) (aged 64)
London, England
NationalityPakistani
Ugandan
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1950; died 1988)​
Children5 (including Ijaz-ul-Haq)

Begum Shafiq Zia (née Jahan; 21 September 1931 – 5 January 1996) was a Pakistani public figure who served as the First Lady of Pakistan from 1977 until her husband's death in a plane crash on 17 August 1988.

Early life and family[edit]

Begum Zia was born in 1931 in Kampala, Uganda, to a family of Punjabi descent; she moved to Pakistan after the partition of India, and married General Zia-ul-Haq on 10 August 1950 in Lahore.[1][2] Shafiq was eight years younger than her husband and related to him on her maternal side. Her father, a medical doctor who lived and worked in Kampala, had taken leave at the time and was in Pakistan so that he could arrange the marriages of both his daughters.[1]

After the 1977 coup and her husband's assumption of the presidency in 1978, Zia became first lady. Over the next decade, she accompanied her husband on several overseas trips, including a state visit to the United States in 1982.[3]

As First Lady[edit]

Upon assuming the presidency in 1978, the Zia family continued residing at the Army House in Rawalpindi, but hosted official functions and state dinners at the newly-completed Aiwan-i-Sadr. Begum Zia's work as First Lady of Pakistan focused on domestic initiatives pertaining to the welfare of disabled persons and the problems of drug addiction and abuse among young people. In 1981, the Zia government passed the Disabled Persons' (Employment and Rehabilitation) Ordinance, which created national and provincial councils to formulate policy for the employment and welfare of those with disabilities, established training centres, set employment quotas and called for the creation of a federal fund for the disbursement of stipends and scholarships for disabled persons.[4] Begum and President Zia's own child, youngest daughter Zain, was born with speech and hearing disabilities.[5]

In 1985, Begum Zia represented Pakistan at Nancy Reagan's First Ladies Conference on Drug Abuse alongside seventeen other first ladies.[6] Addressing the conference, she noted that the government of Pakistan had established twenty-six centres for the rehabilitation of addicts.[7] Begum Zia was invited to the United Nations that same year, where, at a second meeting attended by the first ladies of thirty nations, she called for holding a conference in a developing country where drug use could be studied in the context of poverty.[8] Upon returning to Pakistan, she enlisted the cooperation of nongovernmental organizations in tackling the domestic drug abuse problem, and inaugurated the 1986 national conference of NGOs on drug abuse prevention in Karachi.[7][9] Begum Zia's work was featured in a United States Information Agency film, along with that of Marly Sarney of Brazil, Queen Sirikit of Thailand, Queen Noor of Jordan, and Queen Silvia of Sweden.[10]

Begum Zia was present at the inaugural session of the first SAARC summit in Dhaka, Bangladesh alongside the wives of other SAARC heads of state.[11] In 1987, she accompanied President Zia to Jaipur for his famous cricket diplomacy visit, where she met with Gayatri Devi.[12]

Begum Zia's charitable and humanitarian work was recognised by Aga Khan IV in 1985, who, at the inauguration of the Aga Khan University Hospital, endowed scholarships for medical students and funds to support health care for the poor at the hospital in Begum Zia's name.[13] In 1987, King Hussein of Jordan presented her with the Supreme Order of the Renaissance.[14]

Later life and death[edit]

Following Zia-ul-Haq's death in 1988, Begum Zia founded the Zia-ul-Haq Foundation. In 1989, her pension and privileges as the wife of a former president were revoked by the Benazir Bhutto government.[15] She died on 5 January 1996 at the Cromwell Hospital in London and is survived by three daughters, Rubina, Quratulain, and Zain, and two sons, Ijaz and Anwar.[16]

Foreign honours[edit]

Eponyms[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Parveen Shaukat Ali (1997). Politics of conviction: the life and times of Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. The London Centre for Pakistan Studies. p. 9. ISBN 978-1-901899-03-0. Zia-ul-Haq became engaged to his cousin (the daughter of his mother's sister), who was eight years younger than he was. Begum Shafiq Zia-ul-Haq was born in 1932 in Uganda, where her father lived. According to the traditional religious custom, it was an arranged marriage and was solemnized on August 10, 1950, in Model Town, Lahore. Shafiq's father had been staying there on a leave of absence from his job in Uganda, so that he could marry his two daughters in his own country.
  2. ^ "Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan". 2012-10-20. Archived from the original on 2012-10-20. Retrieved 2018-08-20.
  3. ^ "Ronald Reagan: Toasts of President Reagan and President Mobammad Zia-ul-Haq of Pakistan at the State Dinner". Presidency.ucsb.edu. Retrieved 2018-08-20.
  4. ^ https://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/docs/ELECTRONIC/50075/97325/F1697756412/PAK50075.pdf [bare URL PDF]
  5. ^ Upadhyay, Karishma (June 25, 2004). "The general's daughter". The Times of India. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
  6. ^ Judy Klemesrud (25 April 1985). "FIRST LADIES CONFER ON DRUG ABUSE". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-08-20.
  7. ^ a b "Pakistan Affairs". 1985.
  8. ^ Donnie Radcliffe (1985-10-22). "Surprised For Nancy Reagan". The Washington Post. Washington, D.C. ISSN 0190-8286. OCLC 1330888409.
  9. ^ "Compilation of Narcotics Laws, Treaties, and Executive Documents: Report". 1986.
  10. ^ No to Drugs. Series: Video Tape Programs and Worldnet Broadcasts, 1973 -. 1987.
  11. ^ "IDSA News Review on South Asia/Indian Ocean". 1986.
  12. ^ Ramindar Singh (March 15, 1987). "Pakistan President Zia-ul-Haq comes to Jaipur, sees some cricket and conquers the media". India Today. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
  13. ^ "Inaugration Speech 1985, Pakistan | The Aga Khan University". www.aku.edu. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
  14. ^ Jordan Times , 1987, Jordan, English.
  15. ^ Crossette, Barbara (9 August 1990). "Son of Former Military Ruler Goes Into Politics in Pakistan". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-08-20.
  16. ^ "Jang Group Online". 2011-11-19. Archived from the original on 2011-11-19. Retrieved 2018-08-20.
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