The 1985 Election
Background
After assuming power on July 5, 1977, General Zia-ul-Haq stated categorically that his institution is not interested in holding power; therefore, his first priority is to hold new elections within 90 days and hand over power to the elected government. The projected date for holding elections was October 1977, however on October 1, he postponed the elections in order to first clear the field, organize process of accountability and purge corruption from rank and file of political parties. He stated such objectives to ensure that previous political crisis would not be repeated again.
In the same footsteps, the military government lead by General Zia started the accountability of the ousted civilian government of Z.A Bhutto, followed by Islamization policy. Meanwhile, General Zia needed to bring into politics the several groups mainly having the right wing and Islamic political ideology. There emerged several orthodox and fundamentalist groups to mobilize support of the military regime in order to destabilize the support of the ousted PPP and to provide public support to military regime. After the hanging of ousted Prime Minister Z.A. Bhutto in March 1979, General Zia-ul-Haq engaged in creation of political support, therefore, he put restrictions on political parties through amendment in the Political Parties Act, 1962.
In September 1979, the military government decided to hold local bodies' election on non-party basis before the next general elections. With much resentment, political forces participated in local body‟s elections; however, many elected members of local body belonged to different political parties. This was again against the expectations of military regime and resultantly, it postponed the general election on the ground that the time was not suitable for holding election and therefore, additional restrictions were imposed on political parties and their activities. Moreover, General Zia-ul-Haq issued a Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) in March 1981 to replace the already partly suspended 1973 Constitution. He, however, nominated 228 members Federal Council to be called as Majlis-i-Shoora with consultative powers on legislation and policies, in January 1982.
In his address to the Federal Council on August 12, 1983, General Zia-ul-Haq gave another date of general elections to be held in March 1985. Therefore, in December 19, 1984, General Zia-ul-Haq elected himself as president of country through a tricky referendum for next five years. He sought the continuity of his presidency for next five years from public if later approves for his Islamization