I’m fighting fit: Zardari

By
Hussain
-
25
152

President Asif Ali Zardari used the fourth anniversary of his wife Benazir Bhutto’s assassination on Tuesday to ensure supporters he would not resign in the face of numerous crises building around him and to take a jab at the Supreme Court.
Addressing a huge crowd comprising tens of thousands of supporters at the Bhutto family mausoleum at Garhi Khuda Baksh, the president asked the apex court about the as yet unsolved case of Benazir’s assassination. “People ask what happened to Benazir Bhutto’s case,” he said. “I ask (Chief Justice) Iftikhar Chaudhry: what happened to Benazir Bhutto’s case?”
The president said the chief justice took up petitions against the government but was not paying heed to the petition he had sent to him to seeking to revisit the Zulfikar Ali Bhutto case. He said further that some cases were visible to the chief justice, others were not. “The things that are against our prestige are important in your view,” he said. Zardari said the best way to pay tribute to slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto on the fourth anniversary of her assassination was to foil anti-democratic conspiracies. He vowed to protect the system, disallowing the federation’s split.
“We will fight any evil eye that is a threat to the federation, but our way will be that of Aung San Suu Kye,” said the president, referring to the Burmese leader known across the world for her struggle for democracy.
Zardari, speaking from behind bulletproof glass and appearing relaxed and healthy, said he had spent many years behind bars but his love for democracy remained firm and steadfast. He said further that his party would continue to fight undemocratic forces but would do so following democratic norms. “We will fight for democracy, not seats,” said the president.
Zardari said democracy was new to the country and needed time to mature and get to the point where it should be. He said those who said democracy was in place must know that the spirit of democracy would take time to take hold. “Democracy with all its qualities will take time and sacrifices, which we are willing to make,” he said. “Let us on this day rededicate ourselves to the democratic mission of… Benazir Bhutto whose life was dedicated to fighting dictatorship and those seeking to defame and dismantle democratic institutions,” the president said. He said her assassination was a conspiracy to rid the world of its best weapon to combat international violent extremism. It was a conspiracy to rob Pakistan of its best hope to establish a fully functional democracy, he added.
He declared himself completely fit, saying he wanted to make history, not headlines, in the media. The embattled president, who has recently been under treatment in Dubai after the memogate controversy surfaced, seemed very energetic during his rare speech as he sought to stand behind his prime minister.
“Tailor-made democracies don’t work. I don’t pay heed to anyone except Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, as he represents parliament,” he said. He praised Gilani for remaining steadfast and said he stood by him. He said those who were now jumping fences did not have any significant achievements to their credit. “Is this to derail real democracy, or an attempt to bring in some dictator?” he questioned.
“You would not find Yousaf Raza Gilani stumbling at any stage,” the president said. He added that though in terms of protocol, Gilani reported to him, but in fact the prime minister was the leader of all. He said all forces were under parliament and he always listened to the prime minister because he represented the federation and was a representative of the people through parliament. The president said he decided to hand over all powers to the prime minister as he wanted to nurture Pakistan’s nascent democracy. He asked the people and the party workers to remain steadfast and not to be deterred by temporary challenges. “Democracy can deliver and will deliver,” he said and asked how much time had been given to the nascent democracy. “It will take time for it to flourish,” he added. He said the chapter of Benazir assassination had reopened after former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice’s book surfaced. The president said he wanted to address the miseries of the Baloch people. “I want to resolve the matters within the parameters of the federation,” he said. “If the Baloch want to fight, they should learn from us how to fight,” he said. The president said in the same context that he gave an identity to the Pakhtuns and no one could take it back for centuries to come.
Zardari also took a swipe at the media, targeting TV talk shows in particular. He said he had advised his political leaders, party men and activists not to attend TV talk shows, which he said pitched politicians against each other. He also favoured a separate province in South Punjab and said “the people seek their rights from the Takht-e-Lahore (Throne of Lahore)”, referring to the Punjab government. President Zardari also said Pakistan had decided not to be part of any international war game. “We have decided not to join any ‘theatre of war’ that has nothing to do with us,” he said, adding that trade would rather be the top priority of Pakistan with the international community. The president also said Asefa, his daughter, would carry forward the legacy of Benazir Bhutto. The death anniversary came the same day the Supreme Court began deliberations on whether it could open its own investigation into the memogate scandal. Zardari struck a defiant note, but noticeably refrained from attacking the military establishment at the rally. Tens of thousands of people gathered at Bhutto’s mausoleum on Tuesday, converging outside the heavily guarded perimeter of the compound to pay their respects, beating their chests and demanding that her killers be arrested. Around 6,000 policemen, hundreds of paramilitary officers, electronic gates, aerial surveillance and sniffer dogs were ensuring security, said police.
“We want revenge. Arrest Benazir’s killers,” the mourners chanted, carrying party flags and photographs of Bhutto, eulogising her and her father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also appealed for democracy to prevail in an editorial written in a local English-language newspaper.

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25 COMMENTS

  1. shouting again and again by the worthy president in favour of so called democracy he own is a betrayal to the poverty stricken masses of this country, for whom he did not utter even a word not to speak of doing anything for poverty alleviation. He seem least concerned to the miseries people are facing. in the context of poverty, law and order situation, energy crisis, very pathetic situation.

  2. Zaradri is a traitor and now trying to become inocent ….He should be hanged publicly..

    Ali Soomro
    Dadu

    • Agreed apart from the hanging part of it. Not agreed on hanging.

      It made a hero out of ZAB. A fair trial would have exposed him i.e. his part in loss of East Pakistan. He clung to Hamood ur Rehman commission report and did not allow its publication.

  5. His (Zardari) strategy has always been to hide behind his wife's assassination and use it effectively to control the idiots of PPP and he has been very successful in doing that so far. He is talking about CJ not doing enough to catch BB's killers but he knows it quite well that it is not CJ's job to catch BB's killers. If this government has done any investigation into the killing of BB, which it hasn't because it is an inept to the bones, then it should file a case and present the evidence. But it will never happen because he was the biggest benificiary of BB's death and the investigation might also reveal the myth of BB's will where she "apparently" made him the incharge of the party in case something happened to her.

  6. Of course he is.

    This chap has produced aroud 250 (or is it 350) medical certificates and each time it just happened to be when he had a court hearing or when he was in a very tricky situation.

  7. " JEAY BHUTTO,BHUTTO JEAY ". It is an established fact known to all over the world that PPP has sacrificed their everything from lives to living, sentences in prison and target pumishment since the creation of the party. It is a fact that Zardari's government is the first one in the history of Pakistan which opted for a reconcilatory approach internally and externally. PPP is party of federation and will continue to do so even if they are in opposition. ZAB is the first leader for this party his legacy his grandson Bilawal Bhutto will bring on and as Zardari sahib has declared that his daughter Asefa will take on the legacy of her mother to every corner of the country. It is great to hear the introduction of young Bhutto's in the political arena. With all this going on, PTI becoming the top political party in few months, PML(N) introducing new leaders and PPP picking up from where they ended last elections is prosperity in democracy. By all this democratic institution is becoming stronger and powerful. Good Luck PPP.

    • I like to remind this writer that Zardari and his children are not BHUTTOS. They are Zardaris. Only in a Jewish religion do the children take the name of there mother.
      Maybe Zardari and his children have changed there religion from Islam to Judiasm

  8. people are doing suicide n they have completed 80% of their "manshoor " A man without A vision and sense

  10. Bhutto's have made many sacrifices for democracy in Pakistan for which the nation honors them by keeping them alive in their memory. But these sacrifices were not made to be encashed through blatant corruption by a Zardari.

  13. If you are fighting fit then you must have feigned illness and gone to Dubai for 'other' purposes. Enough to declare you unfit to remain a president

    • Yes Brave Zardari. That is why he was hiding behind protective glass while making speech. IK never does and neither do the Shariff. Yes brave Zardari. He runs away to Dubia to meet his USA bosses when confronted with SC allegations.. Yes brave Zardari. He pleads mental illness when asked to appear in front of Swiss Courts.
      What a brave man he is.

    • You must be either leaving on another planet or maybe a croonie of Zardari.
      Zaradri brave man?
      He is a hypcrate.
      In his speech yesterday he said that he will always protect the public and will stand infront of the public. Then why was he hiding behind a protective glass from teh same public? Very brave man.

  15. Zardari is up to his old games. He is a master of deciet and deception. He said that 80 per cent of his manifest is complete. That is right he has completely destrpyed 80 per cent of Pakistan and now is on his way to complete the other 20 per cent

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