Sunni and Shia Islamic law differ in certain aspects, and by imposing shari’a as he was doing, Zia was mandating a Sunni reading of Islamic law. For Shias, ever since the partisans of Ali had opted not to pay allegiance or taxes to the first caliph after the prophet, zakat could only ever be a voluntary individual act, it could not be levied by the state. Small differences in the reading of Islamic law, which had never been an issue in decades of communal life, were suddenly causing a major rift in Pakistani society.
