Islamabad January 4, 2007: Paying glowing tributes to Quaid e Awam Prime Minister Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on his seventy eighth birth anniversary on Friday Chairperson Pakistan Peoples Party Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto said, "Shaheed Bhutto's life was a beacon light for bright young people who subscribe to high ideals want to serve their country and humanity".
In a message today the former Prime Minister recalled that Shaheed Bhutto formed the Pakistan Peoples Party against military dictatorship. He led the mammoth struggle of the people against successive military dictatorships including General Ayub, General Yahya and General Zia's tyranny, oppression and injustice. She said that now it was incumbent on the new generation to unite under the banner of democracy to take Pakistan forward into the twenty first century as a modern and enlightened state through respect for human rights, gender equality, minority rights and economic emancipation of the people.
Mohtarma Bhutto said that Quaid e Awam caught the heartbeat of the people when he declared, "Chahta Hai Har Insaan, Roti, Kapra Aur Makaan". She said that in the twenty-five years since the judicial murder of Quaid e Awam, the country was ruled through direct or indirect military rule. This, she said, had resulted in the crushing of the people’s economic and social rights. Today, unemployment, inflation, lack of basic facilities like drinking water, roads, proper health facilities was rampant. She said that after the long, dark night of military tyranny, once again the people demanded Roti, Kapra and Makaan.
She said it was a measure of the popular support and respected that Shaheed Bhutto commanded that he still dominated the politics of Pakistan. The battle today was still between dictatorship and democracy, between development and backwardness, between the people and the Generals. Mohtarma Bhutto said that the PPP was continuing the great mission of Shaheed Bhutto to empower the people and make them masters of their own destiny so that they could have food, clothing, shelter, education, health, drinking water and roads.
In this titanic struggle there were two forces: the Pakistan Peoples Party and its allies and the military establishment and its allies. The one depended on survival by creating crises that could justify strategic support from foreign countries. The other depended on the power of the people whose right it was to govern themselves and hold their rulers accountable.
The former Prime Minister said that Quaid e Awam was a true political son of Quaid e Azam. He was the youngest Cabinet Minister at the time of his appointment, the youngest Foreign Minister and the youngest elected President and Prime Minister of the country. He had tremendous confidence in the youth of the country and in the peasants, labourers, traders, women, teachers, intellectuals and working classes.
In fact Quaid e Awam laid the foundation of Pakistan's development building Port Qasim, the Karakorum Highway, Heavy Mechanical Complex at Taxila, the Kamrah Aeronautical Complex, the Naval Shipyard, Shahrah e Faisal and the Steel Mills of Pakistan. He was the Father of Pakistan's nuclear program and gave the Islamic world its first Nuclear nation. He built nuclear power stations and introduced nuclear medicine including building five cancer treatment hospitals with nuclear medicine.
The PPP Chairperson said that the Quaid e Awam wanted young people to learn the professions. He made education free and built professional colleges and Universities that taught medicine, law, engineering and accounting. He was a great believer in science and scientific discovery and set up several research institutes in all fields including agriculture and industry. She said that Quaid e Awam gave the country a unanimous Constitution that was Islamic, Federal, Egalitarian, supported provincial autonomy and protected the right of equality of every citizen irrespective of their race, religion and gender. Shaheed Bhutto introduced human rights and until his government, Pakistanis were not entitled to a passport. He made passports a fundamental right and allowed the export of Pakistani manpower, which changed the fortunes of the deprived and discriminated. He was a great leader, compassionate and devoted to his people.
Mohtarma Bhutto noted that Quaid e Awam built up the armed forces following the defeat at Dacca. He raised the morale of the Nation and honourably brought back 90,000 prisoners of war, saving them from war crime tribunals. He also brought back territory lost in West Pakistan. He signed the Simla Agreement, which has prevented a full-scale war between India and Pakistan. Quaid e Awam held the second Islamic Summit in Lahore in 1974, which led to the recognition of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation as the sole voice of the Palestinians. This recognition enabled the PLO to ultimately negotiate for the Palestinian Authority.
Mohtarma Bhutto said that Quaid e Awam worked selflessly for the Federation of Pakistan. She said that he gave the supreme sacrifice for the people and their democratic rights walking proudly to the gallows and giving up his life so that the torch of freedom could burn in the night of dictatorship.
She recalled that it was Shaheed Bhutto who established Azad Kashmir as an autonomous area with its own President, Prime Minister and Judiciary and gave Balochistan Provincial status and its own High Court. He brought development to the tribal areas and to the Northern areas. Each part of Pakistan was precious to him. He built the golden gates at Data Darbar as well as at Lal Shahbaz Qalandar's shrine.
She said that Shaheed Bhutto introduced land reforms and ended the jagirdari system and gave labour reforms that protected labour through health, educational and pension schemes. He was a social reformer who changed the contours of the politics of Pakistan.
“Quaid e Awam Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Shaheed gave voice to the voiceless and power to the powerless of the country and helped them shape their own destiny and the destiny of their country”.
She said that ambitious Generals would always try to seize the rights of the people for their selfish reasons. However, the Pakistan Peoples Party is the legacy of Quaid e Awam to his people to act as a vanguard in the struggle for the restoration of their lost constitutional, democratic and economic rights.
“Quaid e Awam shall live forever in the pages of history. He is a shining example inspiring generations of Pakistanis, Asians and Muslims to reach the heights of greatness by dedicating their lives selflessly to their country, to their people and to the pristine values of justice, equality and freedom in this still young century”.
