The best tribute to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is to follow his footsteps to strengthen democracy and empower people by ending poverty, President and Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari said on Wednesday in a message on the 84th birth anniversary of the PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
Zardari said PPP workers must reinstate a determination to tread the path lay down by Bhutto. He said Bhutto believed in dialogue to solve political problems rather than use force and was able to recover territory lost in 1971 and secure the return of prisoners of war and prevented the war trials of military officers to protect Pakistan’s honour. He said the Simla Accord had brought the longest spell of peace between India and Pakistan and the current democratic government retains Bhutto’s belief in negotiations as the model for lasting peace in the region.
He said the current government also restored the 1973 Constitution through dialogue. He said, “our heads bow in gratitude for restoring the Constitution that was first given to the people by the PPP’s founding father.” He said Zulfikar Ali Bhutto gave the people a voice which no subsequent dictatorship was able to stifle.” Zardari said the government was determined not to let the dark forces of dictatorship stifle the people. He said Bhutto was `Pakistan’s modernizer’ who left a mark in history. Separately, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said the dynamic leadership of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto created political and social awareness amongst people which improved their lives. He said, “Today marks the birthday of a great leader in the history of the subcontinent; a leader known as a symbol of struggle against the forces of exploitation, injustice and oppression.”
He said Bhutto sacrificed his life for principles and became immortal, while his murderers were condemned to the annals of history. He said Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is not the name of a personality but that of a movement and ideology, which would continue to inspire and motivate people in the struggle against exploitation and oppression. He said that after Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was the true leader who had created roots amongst ordinary people.
Asif Zardari is the only president in Pakistan’s history who has donated his eyes. But people smell a conspiracy in this too. Some of the good things Zardari has done include: (1) Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), (2) Aghaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan Package, (3) 43,800 acres of land distributed among landless peasants, (4) reinstatement of sacked employees in different government and semi-government departments, (5) minimum pay for labourers increased from Rs 4,600 to Rs 7,000, (6) political rights given to the people of Gilgit-Baltistan, (7) bills for women’s rights and empowerment, (8) 18th and 19th constitutional amendments, (9) combined NFC Award, (10) Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline agreement despite American opposition, (11) kicking out of the Saudi ambassador for distributing money to Islamist terrorists, (12) forcing the Americans to tie aid to Pakistan to the continuation of democracy (this is why the generals are mad at him), (13) devolution of governance to the provinces, and (14) extension of the Political Parties Act (PPA) to FATA. It is unfortunate that blind media and its blind followers never intended to give due credit to Zardari.
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