Karachi: Former Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday termed July 5 a ‘black day’ in the history of the nation, as he alluded to when Zia-ul-Haq toppled the elected government of prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in 1977.
Zardari was addressing a Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) workers rally in Dadu town.
“Today will always be remembered as the day when a tyrant ambushed the democratic government of Zulifqar Ali Bhutto,” Zardari said.
He further said that Bhutto’s government was removed because he had challenged the world super powers of those days, banking on the strength of the people of Pakistan.
On July 5, 1977, military dictator General Zia-ul-Haq staged a coup against Bhutto. Later on, Bhutto was jailed on charges relating to the murder of a political opponent and sentenced to death. He was hanged in 1979 after being convicted on murder charges, something the PPP dubbed as the “judicial murder of Bhutto”.
The co-chairperson of PPP said that the country had failed to progress over the last 70 years, whereas other countries like China had made strides in the same period, mainly due to the martial laws in the country which cumulatively governed the country for 40 years.
“There is no continuation of mindset during the regimes, [this] is only a virtue of [a] democratically-elected government,” he observed.
Recalling the courageous stance of Bhutto, Zardari said that Bhutto had rejected an offer that entailed him leaving Pakistan, preferring to lay down his life for the cause of people, instead of compromising.
Zardari sarcastically said that “those who fear imprisonment and [the] Panama case would not survive in the annals of the country.”
Zardari further said that now the PPP had given a substitute gift to the nation in the form of a young Bhutto, as he referred to his son, Bilawal, who was made the chairman of the PPP after the assassination of Zardari’s wife and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, in 2007.
“Now Bilawal and Asefa [Zardari and Benazir Bhutto’s daughter] are with you and they dwell in your hearts,” he said.
He also hinted that Asefa would contest the next general elections, adding that an internal discussion within the party was going on as to which constituency was suitable for her to run for.
He lambasted on Imran Khan, the chairman of Pakistan Tehreeke Insaf (PTI), saying the bat, Khan’s election symbol, would not be able to rule the country.
