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Article: Lost linch-pin. (death of Mohammed Zia ul Haq) (editorial)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- August 20, 1988
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1988 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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MOHAMMAD ZIA UL HAQ was a dictator. To say that is not to be needlessly rude, but simply to draw attention to the problems that are bequeathed to a dictated-to country when the dictator goes, suddenly, by murder or not, on an otherwise eventless afternoon. Not in every case: the word dictator is a loose one. Russia and China are in a broad sense dictatorships, their policies crafted by the inflexible will of one man. But both countries have surrogate dictators in re, serve, lots of them, maybe with some ideas of their own, but men in general sympathy with the system they serve. The death of a leader, however suddenly, even by violence, may not change all that much in those ...