Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-chairman and former president Asif Ali Zardari, while warning the masses against a “systematic assault” on women rights in the country, on Monday urged the nation to fight this “mindset”.
Zardari, in a message on the eve of the 63rd birth anniversary of Benazir Bhutto, said, “On this birthday of the Muslim world’s first directly elected woman prime minister it is worrying that in the name of religion, obscurantist elements are increasingly suppressing women – some even calling for violence against them.”
He said that “we condemn and reject such declarations by semi literate and obscurantist male chauvinists in the name of religion. We also condemn and reject the hysterical anti-women noises increasingly being made by these elements”. The PPP, he said, vows to fight bigots and obscurantist to their end.
Zardari also asked people to follow Benazir Bhutto in standing up to militants and extremists and not allow them foist their ideology through brute force. “At the same time we must also protect and defend democratic institutions and constitutionalism,” he said.
Recalling Benazir Bhutto’s last words at a public meeting in Liaquat Bagh, Rawalpindi asking people to stand up to extremism, dictatorship and to banish poverty and ignorance, Zardari said “these words served as a roadmap for making Pakistan a modern and pluralistic state”.
He said the PPP would continue fighting militancy and strengthening democracy by fighting forces of status quo and anti-democracy. “We also reiterate our pledge to extricate the poor from abject poverty and degradation.”
Zardari also paid tributes to those who laid down their lives or suffered in the course of democratic struggle and in fighting regressive elements.
