Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: “The sanctity of the Constitution demands that we not only act upon it in letter and spirit and jealously safeguard it but also to punish those treasonous elements that have abrogated and subverted this foundational document of the state, the basic social contract between the state and citizen and the glue that binds its federating units”.

This has been stated by the former President Asif Ali Zardari in a message on the eve of the Constitution Day on Sunday April 10 when the unanimously adopted Constitution of Pakistan was passed by the National Assembly on this day in 1973.

It is a national disgrace that a dictator abrogated the Constitution in 1977 and later ridiculed it as ‘a mere 15-page document’ that he boasted could be torn at will, he said.

“Tearing the Constitution is tearing the soul of the nation. Ridiculing it is ridiculing the people”.

Those who tear and ridicule the Constitution are the traitors of the nation. Dictators and usurpers must be punished; they will be in the fullness of time, he said. The former President also commended the Senate for taking the lead in observing April 10 as the Constitution Day.

It was a timely initiative needed to highlight the importance of jealously safeguarding the Constitution and relentlessly pursuing those who have subverted it. Senate was the first elected House, which unanimously called for treason trial of a dictator. It is natural that it should have taken this lead in commemorating this Day.

Congratulating the democratic parties and people the former President expressed the hope that the celebrations today would enhance the awareness of people of Pakistan to the importance of safeguarding the Constitution.

Asif Ali Zardari paid glowing tributes to Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto for “forging historic consensus among all provinces, political parties and shades of opinion” in making the Constitution. He also lauded Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto as the icon of democracy and constitutionalism and countless political leaders and workers belonging to different political parties who rendered huge sacrifices in the cause of safeguarding democracy and the Constitution.