Prosperity in Pakistan Insures Stability for Itself and the World Brothers and Sisters of the Socialist International Movement, It is my great honor to be with you today, representing the Pakistan Peoples Party.  I come before you as a man in grief, but also as a man with a mission.  

I stand in, I stand as a poor substitute for one of the greatest women who ever lived, my life partner, the mother of my children, the first Muslim woman ever elected Prime Minister of an Islamic state, a woman who lived and died for the causes she believed in -- social equality, justice, and democracy.

I want to pay tribute to my beloved wife and leader, who would have celebrated her 55th birthday last week, the incomparable Shaheed Benazir Bhutto. Some people talk change.  Benazir caused it. We will not see her likes again in our lifetimes.

Our family has served the people of Pakistan from cradle to grave. Three Bhuttos have been martyred for democracy.  My father-in-law Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, the first democratic leader of Pakistan who was toppled and murdered in a military coup. My mother-in-law Begum Nusrat Bhutto, who lies vegetative and lifeless from beatings suffered while she led demonstrations against dictatorship. And for my wife, Benazir Bhutto, who fearlessly returned to Pakistan to lead the forces against tyranny and terrorism and paid with her life.

Our family has lived and died for Pakistan . And in her dying wish, Benazir entrusted the responsibility for leading the party to me, and I in turn, recognizing that the Bhuttos have been the political and moral fabric and glue that has held the Pakistani federation together, have reached out to our son.

So I stand here today for all of those who have come before me, who have fought and died for justice and democracy in Pakistan , and also for a successor generation of young Pakistanis who will never know the pain of dictatorship, the perils of poverty, the despair of a future without hope.

In grief I pick up the mantel of my fallen wife and leader, and pledge before you and Almighty God to devote the rest of my life to making her dream a reality for Pakistan and for the world.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The world has paid a terrible price for a history of using Pakistan as a blunt instrument to achieve short term political goals.

We were exploited under colonialism. We were manipulated as a tool of Cold War intrigue. We were made into surrogates for a war against the Soviets in Afghanistan , and when that war was won, Pakistan and the country we liberated were abandoned to the forces of extremism and fanaticism.

The West would invest in our weapons and our military, but would not invest in our people and build our prosperity.

Pakistan was always viewed in the short term, through the myopia that perpetuated poverty, ignorance and hopelessness, and institutionalized tyranny and dictatorship -- the  prerequisites for the fundamentalism and terrorism that now plague our planet.

Yes, we are now the Petrie dish of international terrorism, but this was not our creation, it is a product of failed international politics. But now can and must reverse this, and convert Pakistan into a successful model of modernity for 1.3 billion Muslims on earth. But we can’t do it alone. We need your help and the help of the world.

If we succeed, we will contain talibanization, extremism and terrorism.

But if we fail, the world will fail with us.

Every month we see new political madrassas, new radical mosques in the tribal and frontier areas of my nation, and in Afghanistan .

Has UNESCO built one school for our children?  Has the UN, or the United States , or the United Kingdom , contributed one cent to the victims of terrorism in our land?  No, but Al Qaeda and the Taliban pay the families of their casualties before they even bury their dead.  Something is wrong, very wrong, with this picture.

It is time for the world to convene a South and Central Asia Regional Conference to coordinate a multi-faceted international program to not only contain terrorism militarily, but to choke off the social and economic oxygen of the fire of terrorism by rebuilding the economies and infrastructure of our region.

Believe me, ladies and gentlemen, a prosperous Pakistan will smash the remnants of terrorism from our frontiers better than the bullets, missiles and tanks of the super-powers.

We stand against terrorism not as surrogates but as partners to the civilized world.  We are fighting for the very soul of Pakistan .  We have suffered more victims of terrorism than any nation on earth, including the United States on September 11th. Sitting here in the security of Athens , the daily horror of suicide bombs and IEDs may seem distant, but let me assure you that terrorism is not contained by borders.  In the era of globalization, the impact of terrorism
ripples across the planet.

Only last week we learned from one of the top advisors to Republican Presidential  candidate John McCain that they credit McCain win in New Hampshire and his ultimate capture of his party nomination, to the international crisis triggered by the assassination of my wife on December 27th.  And on that day, in the hysteria of our horror, stock markets tumbled all across the world, one more catalyst to the economic recession in which we all find ourselves.

No my friends, instability in this modern era is never confined by borders. And thus you all have a vested interest in our prosperity, democracy and success. We reach out to you, our brothers and sisters in the Socialist International movement, to stand with us at this crossroads in our nation history.

Ladies and gentlemen, I and my delegation are comfortable sitting amongst you today.  The Manifesto of the Pakistan Peoples party is entitled:

Ellm, roshni, sab ko kaam

Roti, kapra aur makaan.

Mang raha hay har insaan.

Education, employment for all

Food, clothing, shelter

For everyone

Quaid-e-Awam Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, founded our party by saying: “We will build a society in which the old values of greed and advancement will be replaced by a common concern for the welfare of the whole community.

So today the Pakistan Peoples Party feels very much at home.

Some may think that war eclipses our social agenda. But that is not the case. The successful implementation of our social agenda is the most significant long term weapon in the battle against terrorism.

Our agenda is ambitious. There is much to do. There are long neglected social, economic and infrastructure needs that must be addressed if the people of Pakistan are to once again have confidence in their government and hope for their futures.

We will restore law and order to our land and attack fanaticism and terrorism wherever it rears its ugly head.

We will reform our tribal areas -- the hotbed of terrorist activity -- economically, politically and socially through specific programs that address the needs of the people and integrate these areas into the mainstream of Pakistani society.

We understand that unemployment, inflation and poverty are coercive elements in any society, and if left unaddressed create a sense of despair that undermines the legitimacy of government. Thus we will create a sensible and deliverable rational agenda whose goal is establishing social and economic justice for the state.

Everything that people can do for themselves, and everything the private sector can accomplish on its own, they must do. Government will be the safety net that insures equity and protects people. What people and the private sector cannot accomplish on their own, our government stands ready to lead and move forward.

We face a looming energy crisis like many of your nations. We will address the megawatt deficit that threatens our resurgence and will create 2,200 new megawatts of power this year alone.

We recognize that water is the petrol of the future, a key natural resource that must be protected, must be made abundant and must be clean and potable. We will brick line our irrigation channels, we will build small dams across the country, we will proceed on an emergency basis to implement a program that will reduce or water consumption by one half.

We understand that education is the key to the future. Educated mothers raise literate children.  We will undertake dramatic steps in our cities and rural areas to address female illiteracy. Proud of our record of building 46,000 primary and secondary schools in the last PPP governments, we will make education our highest priority. We do this not just because it is right, but also because it is in the long term strategic interests of Pakistan and the world.

We understand that when government fails to perform its responsibility to educate children, parents will turn in desperation to extra-governmental institutions. In Pakistan political madrassas have spread hatred and intolerance. We will move to provide a uniform and responsible national curriculum, both for public and seminary education, so that the children of Pakistan have an opportunity for the future free of intimidation and coercion. And if political madrassas will not conform to the national curriculum, we will shut them down.

Our government will construct one million housing units in Pakistan every year to address our crisis of homelessness.

We will promote a green environment. We will revamp the agricultural sector to make Pakistan food self-sufficient. We will work toward a gender-neutral Pakistan where Pakistani girls and boys have equal rights, equal education and an equal chance to succeed.

We see and dream of a Pakistan where men and woman are equal in all respects, as they are guaranteed in the Holy Quran, a new Pakistan where the birth of a baby girl is greeted with the same joy, hope and opportunity as the birth of a baby boy. That is the kind of Pakistan for which Benazir died. And that is the kind of Pakistan for which we will live.

An ambitious agenda? Yes. But a necessary one. And this is not just in the interest of stability in Pakistan , but the entire world. Let me repeat, a prosperous Pakistan will be a stable and democratic Pakistan . These concepts are intertwined. They are inseparable.

I began today by paying tribute to my martyred wife and I want to end in a way that you better understand her vision and her courage.  Let me quote from the last words of the autobiography she published in April of 2007, just eight months before her murder:

Benazir wrote:  As I prepare to return to an uncertain future in Pakistan in 2007, I fully understand the stakes not only for myself, and my country, but the entire world.  I realize I can be arrested.  I realize that like the assassination of Benigno Aquino in Manila in 1983, I can be gunned down on the airport tarmac when I land.  But I do what I have to do, and am determined to fulfill my pledge to the people of Pakistan to stand by them in their  democratic aspirations.

I take this risk for the children of Pakistan .

It is not about personal power.  It is about simple decency and respect for the right of men and women to live in security and dignity and in liberty.  And now, n this new age of danger, extremism and terror, it is about something more.  Democracy in Pakistan is not just important in Pakistan , it is important for the entire world.

So I plan my return from exile to lead yet another campaign.  I know it  sounds idealistic  and to some unrealistic, but after all of these years, I still  maintain  my faith that time, justice and the forces of history are on the  side of democracy.

Some people might not understand what drives me forward into this uncharted and potentially dangerous crossroads of my life.  Too many people have sacrificed too much, too many have died, and too many people see me as their remaining hope for liberty, for me to stop fighting now.  I recall the words of Dr Martin Luther King:  Our lives begin to end the day we remain silent on things that matter.

With my faith in God, I put my fate in the hands of the people of Pakistan .�

Ladies and gentlemen,

They took Benazir’s life away from her, and they took her away from me, her children and her country.

But no one can take away her dreams and her vision that inspired the entire world.

Men and women can be killed.

But great ideas are immortal.

Bhutto lives.

Jeay Bhutto.

Thank you ladies and gentlemen.