Pakistan People’s Party co-chairman and former president Asif Ali Zardari in a message on Monday denounced the abrogation of the constitution and take over by dictatorship on July 5, 1977.
Zardari said, “July 5 is a black day in our national calendar on many counts. On this day, a dictator overthrew an elected prime minister and later executed him.
On this day, the constitution was decimated and thus began a process of destruction of state institutions. The dictator started privatising jihad; a process that was to take the jihadis agenda beyond national boundaries in pursuit of dubious security policies and goals.
The religious fanaticism and privatised jihad pursuing some dubious security goals continue to haunt the nation even today.
Never before had any one individual done so much of destruction as was done by the dictator who hijacked the nation and national institutions on this day.
Truly, it is a day of national shame and horror. It enjoins upon us to jealously guard democracy on the one hand and to punish the dictators on the other. Dictators and usurpers of people’s rights and freedoms must be punished; in the fullness of time they will be.”
On this day, we also pay homage to the democratic ethos of the people and to all those who suffered in the cause of democracy, he said.
He further said, “The people of Pakistan have consistently refused to be suppressed by force and have always bounced back to seize their democratic rights from the jaws of dictators. I salute them. On this day, my thoughts also go to those martyrs of democracy who suffered and sacrificed during that black period of our national history. They suffered so that the future generations may live in peace and honor. They are our national heroes and heroines.”
