KARACHI: Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Monday said that July 5, 1977, will always be remembered as a black day in the country’s history when a coup under the leadership of then-army chief Gen Ziaul Haq made an impudent attack on the democratic aspirations of the nation.
Bilawal said that on that fateful day — July 5 — the coup had toppled the elected government of former prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.
“It was Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto 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 Bhutto supervised the approval of the unanimously adopted Constitution. Bhutto had laid the foundations of the macroeconomy and gave the right of nationality and passport to every person.
Bhutto had snatched the claim to governance from selected people and devolved the power to the people and made them powerful, Bilawal declared.
He was of the view that martial law was the worst attack in the country’s history, the consequences of which the country was still facing after the passage of five decades. The coup sowed the seeds of intolerance, extremism and terrorism in the country and let these negative notions seeped deep into our society.
Bilawal said that Bhutto had united the Ummah and led the Muslim world through his farsighted political acumen. He said the late prime minister confronted two dictators and fought a battle for the rights of the people.
He accepted gallows but refused to budge from his stance, he said.
His daughter, slain prime minister Benazir Bhutto, had fought bravely against the dictatorship after him. He said that Bhuttos’ followers and supporters were made subject to every kind of inhuman torture including lashes, solitary confinement and hanging.
He said the war was still going on between democratic and despotic forces. He stated that Bhutto had warned that give the power to the people, otherwise everything would be destroyed.
Bilawal was of the opinion that these words were true even today as we still were fighting for the survival of democracy in the country. He said the name of Bhutto was still alive while those who inflicted pain and suffering on him were part of the trash of history.
