GARDHI KHUDABUKSH: President Asif Ali Zardari Tuesday night called upon his rivals to act in the best interest of the country and “save” politics.
Addressing a public gathering held in connection with Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s 33rd death anniversary, President said that they were reaping the harvests of what the father democracy had sown.
A large number of party workers and supporters had assembled at the Mazar of late ZA Bhutto to pay tributes to the PPP founder leader. It was a big gathering and other party leaders, including Senator Aitzaz Ahsan, also spoke on the occasion.
“Only Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s indefatigable struggle as well as sacrifices gave rise to the democracy of the day, he was a true visionary”, he said.
Going forward he said that, he was the custodian of martyrs’ legacy.
“Remember the catastrophic day, our beloved leader Mohtarma Shaheed Benazir Bhutto was martyred, the “force majeure”, which befell us on that malevolent evening, could have torn the country apart, but the people did not let it happen”, he said.
He said his "reconciliatory politics" was a legacy of Benazir Bhutto.
“I embraced all my rivals for it was BB’s will”, President Zardari said.
President also said that certain elements were trying to pit Urdu-speakers, Sindhis, Balochis, and Punjabis against each other.
“ The forces bent upon plunging this country into the fires of ethnic violence were at work all the time, we shall not let them take advantage of our self-centeredness, we must think as well as act as “one man” to safeguard the country, said he.
“We have so much left to do, we have to rid this country of the scourge of poverty, and we have a history to make too.”
He also claimed that elections would be as transparent as they can be.
"The government will hold free and fair elections in the country and asked his political opponents to play their role to save democracy and join him to bring the country out of its difficulties."
President Zardari declared that he will reply to each and every challenge and allegation and he had planned counter moves to defuse the attack of his opponents. He advised the party workers and people not to believe in media reports and claimed that his government would enhance the Benazir Income Support Programme and the people would hear good news very soon.
He said that he was fighting for the country and for democracy and he had all the democratic forces with him for this purpose. He said Senator Aitzaz Ahsan was also fighting for the people in the Supreme Court. The PPP leader said the Pakistan would have been divided four years ago when Benazir Bhutto was killed but it was he and the PPP who saved the country as it was the philosophy of late Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto.
President Zardari said that Prime Minister Gilani was facing difficulties just because he wanted to give the rights to the people of southern Punjab and save them from the Lahore rulers. He said that the PPP had the mandate to lead the country and the nation would hear some good news in the near future.
The PPP leader said he had hoped that the Supreme Court would hear the Bhutto murder case last year but they were interested in taking action against the installation of electricity in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh rather than hearing the Bhutto case.
Paying tributes to late ZA Bhutto, President Zardari said that Bhutto was alive in history but those who had killed great leaders had nothing, and nobody remembered them.
He said history had proved that there was no justice to the late Bhutto. He said the SC had heard the rental power projects case and given its verdict within three months but they did not hear the Mehran Bank scandal which was pending for the last 20 years because this case would expose the conspiracy hatched against Benazir Bhutto and democracy.
President Zardari said he wanted to do more for the country and he had more welfare programmes for the masses like the Benazir Income Support programme.Earlier, Senator Aitzaz Ahsan told the gathering that the president had immunity and the prime minister would not write the letter to Swiss courts as President Zadari was an elected president and the Constitution had given him immunity. He assured the people that the government would provide relief to them in the coming budget