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ISLAMABAD: On Thursday, when Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) workers were heading towards Garhi Khuda Bux Naudero, Larkana, the Bhutto family’s ancestral town and sadly family graveyard, too, to attend a public gathering marking the 40th death anniversary of the PPP founder and former Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a hearing was under way in Islamabad High Court on a plea seeking disqualification of PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari.
Since the day its leader was hanged 40 years ago, PPP has been facing challenges and threats but at the same these difficulties contribute to making it better and stronger than before.
After the Founder of Pakistan, Quaid-i-Azam (Great Lader) Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Qauid-e-Awam (People’s Leader) Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is considered one who was a true leader and custodian of popular will and defender of democracy. The legacy of Bhutto was carried forward by his daughter, two-time prime minister of Pakistan and first woman prime minister of the Islamic world, Benazir Bhutto. However, she was assassinated in 2007 during an election rally in the same city where her father was executed.
Benazir’s murder is still a mystery and her party holds the militants and extremists responsible for her death as she, according to them, wanted to liberalise Pakistan and free it of obscurantism and backwardness.
Benazir Bhutto died but Bhutto’s legacy refused to die and it is still alive in her son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari who has emerged as the hope for the poor and the down trodden.
They look towards him as one who following his mother’s footsteps could rid the country of extremists.
On the eve of ZAB’s 40th death anniversary, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, his father Asif Ali Zardari, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and other senior leaders of the party gathered at the Bhuttos’ monument in their native town and delivered fiery speeches criticising the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) government for what they said “making life of a common difficult.”
While addressing the workers, Zardari and Bilawal warned the Imran Khan government to stop politics of vendetta and refrain from disrespecting the will of masses.
Bilawal said on the eve of the 40th anniversary of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s judicial murder questions need to be addressed as to why the protector of the poor was murdered.
Shaheed Bhutto brought 90,000 prisoners back home and turned this country into an atomic power. Were they crimes?
Zardari also lashed out at the PTI government saying “They don’t care about the poor, the labourers and the farmers. We can’t give them more time, we have to march on Islamabad for the sake of country,” he said. He asked the masses to prepare for the march. “We will not stage a sit-in like them (PTI) and will continue sleeping on the roads till they resign.”
ZAB’s grandson and granddaughter, on the day of his death anniversary, shared emotional posts on social media expressing their resolve to continue struggle for true democracy in the country.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in his Twitter message said, “Today is my grandfather Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s 40th martyrdom anniversary. Hanged by a dictator he still lives in history. He rules the people’s hearts. He is still an inspiration for all those who believe in democracy. His assassins relegated to the dustbin of history.”
Bilawal also shared a few Urdu verses praising the legacy of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
Bilawal’s cousin, daughter of Murtaza Bhutto and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s granddaughter Fatima Bhutto also remembered her grandfather and mentioned Bhutto’s sacrifice in her tweet: “40 years after my grandfather was martyred, Pakistan is still grappling with just what it lost. QuaideAwam, his vision, his ideology, his beliefs, continue to live in our hearts. He continues to shed light on our path to a peaceful, progressive, prosperous Pakistan. Salaam Bhutto.”
