Zardari, Bilawal pay glowing tribute to ZA Bhutto

ISLAMABAD: Former president of Pakistan and President Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) Asif Ali Zardari has said that the philosophy and ideology of the founder of PPP Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (ZA Bhutto) is guidance for us and the PPP will continue to safeguard the parliamentary system in the country.

“The PPP will never compromise on the principle that people are the source of power,” he said in a statement on Saturday on the martyrdom anniversary of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Asif Ali Zardari said, “Today we reiterate our resolve to continue to defend the country and its Constitution. The PPP gave the 1973 Constitution and restored it in its original form by the 18th Amendment and fulfilled the promise of provincial autonomy made by the Quaid-e-Awam to the people,” he said, adding that PPP will defeat all the conspiracies against 18th Amendment.

He said the Quaid-e-Awam built this nation from the ashes of defeat and gave the downtrodden masses a voice and courage to fight for their rights. “He changed the trend in politics and established the rule of people and showed the world that the true leader of the people accepts death with grace but does not compromise on principles,” he said.

While Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said dictators and their selected unguided missiles imposed on this nation, subsequently destroyed the democratic, societal, and economic fabric, decimating all gains of transferring power to the people by concentrating it back into the hands of a few. “We need to turn back to the teachings and vision of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and course correct the country onto the path of true democracy once again,” he added.

He said that Pakistan would have been a welfare state with a vibrant economy and society, seen as role-model Muslim country in the world, had the prime minister Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto not been hanged.

Paying glowing tributes to Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the PPP chairman said those who martyred Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in fact murdered the dreams of our founding fathers and laid to rest the future of Pakistani generations.

Bilawal said that Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was an iconic leader who had laid the foundations for equitable economic, political and democratic infrastructure. “Things we take for granted today, such as universal suffrage, constitutional guarantees of equality under the constitution, the right to freedom of movement, religion, political affiliation, and unionisation were codified under the unanimously adopted Constitution of 1973. The passing of the 1973 Constitution remains till today the greatest democratic achievement of this country.” he added.

He said that the policies of Bhutto Shaheed had led to the establishing of huge industrial, economic and commercial ventures that had revolutionized the country by redistributing wealth from the hands of the few to the many.

Bilawal pledged that his party would carry on the mission of its founder Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, continuing the struggle for a strong, democratic, egalitarian and progressive Pakistan.