PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that July 5, 1977 will always be remembered as a black day in the history of Pakistan when the military under the leadership of Dictator General Zia ul Haq made a brazen attack on the democratic aspirations of the Pakistani people held under the elected government of late prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
“It was Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (ZAB) who had united the broken nation of Pakistan after the fall of Dhaka. Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had united these broken people under the bonds of the democratic system and strong economic institutions,” he said.
Bilawal said that the democratically elected prime minister supervised the approval of the unanimously adopted constitution of Pakistan and devolved the power to the people rather than allowing it to be in the hands of selected persons.
Bilawal said that martyr ZAB had united the Muslim Ummah and led the Islamic world through his farsighted political acumen.
His daughter, martyr Benazir Bhutto had fought bravely against the dictatorship after him and faced, along with ZAB’s followers and supporters, every kind of inhuman torture including solitary confinement.
Zardari reiterates PPP resolve to struggle for democracy
Former president Asif Ali Zardari has reiterated the PPP resolve to continue its struggle for democracy.
The narrative of parliamentary supremacy will triumph at last, the PPP leader said in a message on the eve of 44th anniversary of the toppling over of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s elected government by Gen Ziaul Haq on July 5, 1977.
His message continued: “The wound marks of July 5, 1977 martial law have not vanished. Dictators die but their doctrine never dies. The faces of dictators change. The history does not forget them. Benazir Bhutto (Shaheed) beat the dictators by ballot twice,” he recalled and vowed to continue her mission.
The 18th Armament is a democratic revenge from the dictators; he stressed adding that the 1973 Constitution guarantees autonomy to the federating units.
The PPP has been observing July 5 a black day since 1977 when Gen Zia overtook ZAB-led government.