International Democracy Day: Deviation from democracy weakened country, says Zardari

ISLAMABAD: Former president and Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday said whenever the efforts were made to deviate from democracy and weaken and disrespect the Parliament, the country suffered the most.

“In order to combat challenges, it is important that there is a Parliament supported and strengthened by the people that works for the people,” the former president said on the occasion of the International Day of Democracy.

He said whenever the efforts were made to crush the spirit of democracy, the leadership and workers of the PPP sacrificed their lives to save it. He said Quaid-e-Awam, Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was the flag bearer of democracy, while the Mother of Democracy, Begum Nusrat Bhutto, sacrificed her entire life for the sake of democracy in Pakistan.

Asif Ali Zardari said that Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto endured imprisonment, oppression and violence for the sake of democracy, adding that the PPP’s Meanwhile, PPP Chairman and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said that democracy is the best weapon to fight injustice, inequality and polarisation.

“The freedom of press and freedom of expression are under attack; disinformation and harmful rumour-mongering and the elements of anarchy are the bigger threats to democratic order,” he said in a statement on the eve of the International Democracy Day.

He said there is a need for strengthening the democratic principles of equality, inclusion and solidarit. He said that the PPP has been at the forefront for the struggle to accomplish democratic aspirations of the people of Pakistan. “Dictators attempted to deface the Constitution but former president Asif Ali Zardari restored it through great political sagacity,” he said.