On the 52nd Founding Day, the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) held a mammoth rally in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. In an apt reference to solidarity with Kashmiris, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said his party would always support the Kashmiris’ right to self-determination. He devoted much of his speech to Kashmir and Kashmiris, renewing the bond of his party with the valley. Kashmiris also responded in a celebratory manner to the PPP Founding Day rally. Founded by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on November 30, 1967, till its 52nd celebrations under Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, the PPP has been through all sorts of struggles and phases. These 52 years have been full of turmoil, betrayals, court trials, jail terms, floggings, vote triumph, exile, murders, media trials, people’s confidence, people’s lack of trust and so on. Over the last decade, the party has evolved into a cult; and for many people, it is simply in their blood to support it, while so many others simply cannot put it up with. That is what the PPP has been throughout history. The party was conceived without any planning. ZA Bhutto resigned from the Ayub cabinet in 1967 and with his like-minded friends, founded the party in Lahore. It won a landslide victory in the 1970 elections. The party gave voice to the voiceless, power to the powerless and a culture of democracy to the people and country. The party restructured the remaining part of the country after the devastating 1971 war. It gave the country a constitution which has been a binding factor in the ensuing years. It established several national assets like Pakistan State Oil, the nuclear programme, the National Engineering Services of Pakistan, over 40 universities, local bodies system, and so on. The 1977 martial law started a period of trouble, turmoil, and terror for the PPP. Bhutto and several of his followers met the gallows without budging from their stance on people’s supremacy. They wrote the history of heroism with their blood. Benazir Bhutto picked the party mission where it was left by her father until December 27, 2007, and left the world mourning and her followers in a deep shock. Asif Ali Zardari took her mission forward. Viewing the upheavals the party has endured it is a miracle it is still alive and active. PPP is a national asset and needs to be valued by the people of Pakistan. *