Tributes paid to Benazir Bhutto

Benazir Bhutto was not only the first female prime minister of Pakistan but she was also the first woman leader of any Muslim state. She represented the country with immense potential and always worked hard for its development and success.

Benazir Bhutto was elected twice as the prime minister of Pakistan and when the public was looking up to her to lead the country once again, she was assassinated in broad daylight in Rawalpindi 12 years ago.

These views were expressed by senior Pakistan Peoples Party leader Professor ND Khan on Friday while addressing a ceremony organised by Karachi University to pay tribute to Benazir Bhutto. The ceremony was held at the Valika Cricket Ground of Karachi University. Professor Khan recalled that Bhutto was gunned down in December 2007 at the same place where the first elected prime minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan, was shot dead in 1951.

He observed that this is so unfortunate that we have not maintained the history of our leaders, we have not preserved their records and we do not have much detail about political activities and personal lives of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Liaquat Ali Khan, Z.A Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto in the shape of books or documentaries.

Prof Khan asked the Benazir Bhutto Chair, University of Karachi, to do in-depth research on different aspects of her life and share it with the masses. He also called for doing research about the leaders of Pakistan so that the young generation would be able to know how much struggle those leaders had made for the development of our motherland.

Another speaker, secretary of the Szabist Trust, Dr Salman Ahmed Shaikh, shed lights on Benazir Bhutto’s vision and said she was the true role model for Pakistani women.

The dean, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, KU, Prof Dr Nasreen Aslam Shah, said that being the acting director of Benazir Bhutto Chair, she would use all available resources to collect all aspects of her life and would make it public. The director, Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, KU, Professor Saleem Memon, said that the assassination of Benazir Bhutto was one of the most tragic incidents the country had witnessed to date.