Bilawal, PPP leaders to address rally in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh today
ISLAMABAD/GARHI KHUDA BAKHSH, April 3: Asif Ali Zardari, Former President and Pakistan People’s Party top leader, Thursday paid tribute to the party founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on the eve of his 37th death anniversary.
In a message released by PPP media cell, Zardari called upon the democratic forces to rededicate themselves to the ideal that all power must flow from the ballot box and not from the bullet.
“Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto awakened the people and gave them the strength of hope and the hope of strength. He illumined the path traversed by the generations that followed him. No one can rob him of his great achievements.
“Indeed Shahhed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto stands tall as a beacon of light, hope and inspiration for the people”. Zardari said that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Continued on page 7
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gave the nation the gifts of a unanimous democratic Constitution and a strengthened national defense. “This twin legacy of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto must be protected at all cost it will be”, he said. “On this day as we rededicate themselves to the ideals of democracy we also pay homage to all those who laid down their lives and endured exile, torture and imprisonment in the cause of democracy”.
Meanwhile, activists of the Pakistan Peoples Party started arriving from all over the country for Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s 37th death anniversary and to hear Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari address a gathering tomorrow, ARY News reported.
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged on April 4, 1979 during the Zia regime. Groups of PPP activists from Lahore and other areas of Punjab started their journey towards Larkana to take part in the events marking Bhutto’s death anniversary.
Meanwhile, stringent security measures have been taken to ensure safety for participants of the rally to be held tomorrow to commemorate Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. These security arrangements include installment of CCTV cameras at the stage, deployment of seven thousand police personnel and three hundred Rangers personnel. Traffic police officials and female police officers will also discharge their duties to ensure maximum security for participants of the rally.
Throughout all districts of Sindh, camps have been set up and the area has been decorated with PPP’s flags.
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was the founder and chairman of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). After serving in military dictator Ayub Khan’s cabinet, Bhutto formed the PPP and swept the 1970 elections in then West Pakistan. After the 1971 war, Bhutto was sworn in as Pakistan’s first elected Prime Minister. He was deposed by army general Zia-ul-Haq, under whose regime Bhutto was found guilty of murder and hanged. He garnered immense fame for his mercurial politics and charismatic speeches. Considered as one of Pakistan’s best orators, Bhutto’s fiery speeches as Foreign Minister and Prime Minister are still popular with masses till date. His daughter Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in a ghastly gun and bomb attack on December 16, 2007 in Rawalpindi.-NNI