Ms Bhutto's Message on 26th Anniversary of Shaheed Z.A Bhutto

4 April 2005: Former Prime Minister and Chairperson PPP, Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto has issued the following message on the 26th anniversary of the Party's founder Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto falling on April 4, 2005:

" Twenty-six years ago on this day Pakistan's first directly elected Prime Minister and founder of the Pakistan Peoples Party was martyred at the hands of a brutal military dictator. It is a national stigma that has polarised the Nation and left deep wounds in the national fabric.

"Quaid e Awam Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto founded the Pakistan Peoples Party to give power to the poor, the downtrodden, the deprived and dispossessed sections of the society. He empowered the people of Pakistan to help shape their own destiny and the destiny of their country.

"The dictator and anti democratic forces conspired to eliminate him because they feared that as long as he was around neither dictatorship could flourish nor the peoples' voice silenced. They executed him physically but failed to extinguish the flame that he had lit. While the dictators have been consigned to the dustbin of history Shaheed Bhutto lives on.

"Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto symbolized resistance against tyranny, injustice and despotic rule. Today unfortunately tyranny and despotic rule once again reigns in our land. Democracy has been vandalized and state institutions systematically destroyed. There is therefore need, more than eve before, for imbibing the spirit of late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

"Shaheed Bhutto gave the country the unanimous Constitution, its nuclear and missile programmes and mega developmental projects including the Steel Mills, Karakoram Highway, Kamra Aeronautical Complex to name only a few.

"Shaheed Bhutto loved the poor.  His economic policies and development strategies were geared to eradicate poverty and alleviate the economic and social sufferings of the people.

"Today as the people have slipped into abject poverty and are committing suicides because of joblessness and economic hardships the policies pursued by Shaheed Bhutto is a ringing endorsement that democracy and development go hand in hand.

"During the past four years the government of political orphans has been following anti poor policies, which have increased poverty and the miseries of the people. The State Bank has admitted that the rate of inflation has increased and will continue to rise further. And as people slip into abject poverty the speaker national Assembly has ordered for himself a new Mercedes costing over 11 million rupees.

National assets have been doled out to the favorites at cheaper prices robbing the employees and people. Corruption is widespread. The people of Pakistan can judge that dictatorship has given the kalishnikov culture and politics of ethnicity and baradarism whereas democracy has brought respect, honour, progress and prosperity in social and economic terms.

"On this day I urge all the democratic forces in the country to renew their determination to fight for the restoration of the Constitution of 1973 and democracy in the country. I also urge the people to forge unity in their ranks to fight for rule of law, for justice, for equity and for
a return of the military to their professional duties for our great Nation.  I also ask the workers of Pakistan Peoples Party to make a solemn pledge on this day to uphold these lofty ideals and keep the banner of Party's founder aloft.

"The survival of the country and the federation lies in Constitutional rule, in Federalism, Democracy, provincial autonomy for the provinces and economic opportunity for our people. April 4th , the day of martyrdom of Quaid e Awam Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, is a solemn occasion to renew our pledge to work for these ideals".