This chapter points out the prominent role the Shias played in the struggle for Pakistan. It highlights how most of the leaders from Paskistan were westernized and saw politics as a collective secular activity separate from religion. Before 1977, Pakistan was neutral and had no sectarian agenda. Shias were well represented in the army and the federal and local bureaucracy, and there were Shia ministers in each successive government. The chapter focuses on the reign of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto from 1971 to 1977, during which communal disturbances erupted occasionally during the month of Muharram that sometimes led to riots. It also talks about the Islamization policy of General Zia-ul Haq's rule from 1977 to 1988 that was based on narrow Sunni interpretations of Islam.