President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday said the father of the nation Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah had rejected change through the bullet and had always favoured it be done through the ballot.
“Let us pledge that we will not allow any change through force and intimidation and respect the power of ballot as the instrument of change,” the president said in a message on the 136th birth anniversary of the Quaid-e-Azam.
“Let us on this day rededicate ourselves to the democratic ideals and principles of the father of the nation as well as reiterate our resolve to defeat the forces that seek to undermine the nation’s founding principles. Quaid stood for constitutionalism, rule of law, respect for human rights, pluralism and honouring the mandate of the people,” he said.
Zardari asked the people never to lose sight of the national goals. “This indeed is our compass in a turbulent sea,” he added.
He said the Quaid envisaged Pakistan as a democratic country driven by the welfare of the masses.
“Unfortunately due to dictatorships in the past, the welfare of the people took a back seat and security concerns became predominant as the country faced extremism and militancy.”
He called for creation of conditions whereby the welfare of the people was the dominant concern of the state.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf urged the nation to pledge on this day to reclaim Quaid-e-Azam’s Pakistan and unleash the creative powers of the people through freedom, justice, the rule of law and an end to terrorism and violence.
The prime minister urged the nation to forge unity in their ranks “to preserve and protect their democratic and political rights and make Pakistan a country where egalitarianism prevailed and in which every individual was allowed opportunities for the blossoming of his potential and shaping his own destiny”.
Quaid favoured change by ballot, not bullet: Zardari
