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”.
