Tributes paid to Bhutto on 91st birth anniversary

MULTAN: Pakistan People’s Party founder chairman Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto had special preferences for south Punjab districts as he introduced a number of development projects and schemes particularly in the field of education for the area.

The People’s Lawyers Forum (PLF) and PPP chapters scheduled different ceremonies to celebrate the 91st birth anniversary of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto here on Saturday and south Punjab but PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari cancelled all ceremonies across the country to mourn the death of party’s stalwart Malik Hakmin. A large number of PPP workers said that Bhutto had introduced the relief-oriented projects for the people of south Punjab.

Talking to The News, PLF senior leader Tariq Saeed Malik said that Bhutto had established a mega project of Mul People’s Colony for the poor class and provided residential plots to thousands of families. It was one of the mega housing schemes for the poor people at that time in which five-marla plots were distributed among the poor families to construct the houses. He said that Bhutto had introduced three-marla residential schemes for the villagers of south Punjab’s rural areas. He said that Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto had ordered the then Punjab PPP government for establishing a medical college in Bahawalpur while the Quaid-e-Azam Medical College was also established in 1971. The PPP government affiliated the college with Bahawalpur Victoria Hospital.

Senior PPP leader Ilyas Khan said that Bhutto brought progressive reforms across the country. He said that Multan Bahauddin Zakariya University was established under the title of ‘Multan University’. Later, Punjab former governor Sajjad Qureshi changed its name to Bahauddin Zakariya University during the marshall law of General Zia.