The Ayub Khan Era, 1958–1968

Abstract The secularist orientation of Ayub Khan, Pakistan’s first military ruler, was initially welcomed by many Shias. But after the worst anti-Shia violence in Pakistan so far took place in Muharram in 1963, the government “balanced” repressive action against Sunni extremists with some restrictions on Shia mourning processions. A new Shia movement led by Sayyid Muhammad Dihlavi was launched in 1964 pressing for three demands, namely separate religious instruction, exclusive Shia control over their religious endowments (Auqaf), and freedom and protection of their religious processions. It took almost five years of increasing communal mobilization to get official acceptance of the three demands by the outgoing Ayub Khan government. In the meantime an internal Shia conflict started between the professional preachers (Zakirs), who dominated the religious lives of the common believers, and some zealous religious scholars (Ulama), who accused the “greedy” Zakirs of distorting Shia beliefs with self-fabricated stories and superstitions.