When 3rd Martial Law was lifted?

The army staged a third coup when General Ziaul Haq overthrew the Bhutto government and took over as CMLA on July 5, 1977. The federal and provincial governments were dismissed; political parties were banned; National and provincial assemblies were dissolved; the constitution was put in abeyance; civil courts continued to function as usual but fundamental rights were suspended.

On July 15, 1977, Justice Mushtaq Hussein of the Lahore High Court was appointed chairman of a committee to formulate election procedures and laws. Two days later, Justice Mushtaq Hussein also took over as the Chief Election Commissioner and announced that elections would be held in the first fortnight of October 1977 under the supervision of the armed forces and the judiciary. October 18 was fixed for the general elections and nomination papers were invited between August 7 and 18, 1977.

On September 21, 1977, General Zia issued a 15-point code of ethics to regulate the election campaign which started from September 18. The code prohibited all actions and deeds, including words, symbolic representations, which were likely to prejudice the solidarity of Pakistan and its Islamic foundations.

On October 1, the elections were postponed indefinitely. On November 10, 1977 the Supreme Court unanimously validated the imposition of martial law, under the doctrine of necessity.

In its judgement dismissing Begum Nusrat Bhutto’s petition challenging detention under martial law of former Prime Minister Z.A. Bhutto and 10 others, the nine-member court headed by Chief Justice Anwarul Haq observed that after massive rigging of elections followed by complete breakdown of law and order situation bringing the country on the brink of disaster, the imposition of martial law had become inevitable.

Zia’s martial law came to an end on December 31, 1985.