Pakistan People’s Party Co-chairman President Asif Ail Zardari has paid glowing tribute to Maadr-e-Jamhooriat late Begum Nusrat Bhutto on her 83rd birth anniversary, calling her “a national asset who personally led from the front a heroic struggle for the restoration of democracy in the country”. In his message on the occasion, he said she was a courageous woman who stood tall despite unspeakable personal tragedies in the course of democratic struggle.
“The Maadr-e-Jamhooriat was victimized and brutalized by forces of dictatorship, the scars of which she wore on her mind and body for as long as she lived and these scars will always be remembered as glittering medallion ever worn by a woman in the course of democratic struggle,” Zardari said. “It is indeed reassuring that her life long struggle has borne fruit and the democratic constitution restored through the 18th Amendment unanimously by all provinces and political forces in the country,” he said, adding that, “It is an irony of fate that first she endured great personal tragedies in the course of the struggle and secondly when the victory finally came she was not in a condition to bask in the glory of this great triumph.”
”A woman of great compassion, elegance, grace and courage she will continue to inspire generations of party workers and democrats and lift them to higher goals in life. At the time of independence, she soothed the scars of many by actively participating in relief measures for refugees pouring into the new found country that had little or no resources,” he said. “It is hard to find a comparable example in contemporary history of a brave and strong woman who endured so much of personal ordeal in a life long struggle for democracy and rights of the people,” he added.
Zardari urged party workers and democratic forces to rededicate themselves to the principles for which Begum Sahiba struggled all her life and suffered so much.
