|
|
|
| July 5, 2005 | Tuesday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 27, 1426 |
Dictatorships do not last before might of people: Benazir
ISLAMABAD, July 4: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairperson Benazir Bhutto has stated that once again “a military adventurer” is exploiting the situation in Afghanistan to perpetuate dictatorship in the country, adding that “history teaches that dictatorships do not last when people fight for the truth”.
“Inshallah, the days of dictatorship will soon end,” she said in a message on the eve of July 5 when General Ziaul Haq had overthrown the elected government of her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, in 1977.
Her party is observing the anniversary as a black day.
“Let all of us who believe in the higher ideals of liberty, fraternity, equality, justice, human rights and empowerment determine to raise our voices for ever to bring about the dawn of democracy,” said the twice elected - and dismissed - former prime minister.
Ms Bhutto said since Gen Zia’s coup, the military had refused to go back to barracks, adding that the story was well documented how the military establishment undermined the nascent democracy that her victory in the post-Zia elections had brought to the country.
She said the PPP symbolized the country’s democratic journey and would make every effort to restore to the people their lost political, economic and social rights.
“July 5 is a black day in the history of Pakistan. It was on this day in 1977 when a military dictator struck in the middle of the night to overthrow a democratic and popularly-elected government.
The arrest and murder of the elected prime minister on trumped up charges was internationally condemned and domestically opposed.”
She said the country was turned into a detention camp in the run up to and after the murder. “The stain of the murder remained on the hands of the dictator till the day he died.
“What followed thereafter is a sordid and unfortunate tale of destruction of democratic state institutions, decimation of the judiciary, usurpation of fundamental rights and disenfranchisement of the people of Pakistan. A reign of terror was let loose, innocent people were flogged and hanged merely for political dissent and ethnicity and sectarianism were deliberately promoted by the usurper to create an artificial constituency for perpetuating his rule.”
The ugly legacy of the military dictatorship culminated in a society where drugs and guns flourished known as the Klashnikov culture. The military dictatorship, believing in divide and rule, created ethnic and sectarian parties to spread bloodshed and fear in the country, she said.
“The dictatorship promoted and patronised the most extreme religious groups that went on to form Taliban and Al Qaeda and plunge the world into a most dangerous situation. The military dictatorship introduced the teachings of Maulana Maudoodi into the armed forces and promoted those officers that it felt would defend its ideology based on a particular religious school of thought. Universities were destroyed as intellectual debate was prohibited and secular-minded professors denied promotion.
“Students were killed at the hands of groups patronised by the military dictatorship. It was a brutal, barbaric period in the history of Pakistan which will forever be a black chapter to warn future generations of the ills of military intervention.
She said innocent young men, parliamentarians and the press were tried by summary military courts, spread-eagled in a mediaeval fashion and whiplashed shaming the regime with its extreme despotism and fear of the public.
Military summary courts were created to hand out death sentences to PPP and other democratic supporters who were then hanged. Scores of protesters were killed in movement after movement in cold blood, she added.
Ms Bhutto said the dictator did a great disservice to religion when he exploited the fair name of Islam to provide a cover for some of the most oppressive measures of the usurper.
“On this day, the PPP workers salute Quaid-i-Awam and all those who gave their lives during the trial and terror of the Zia dictatorship to keep alive the flame of democracy which still burns brightly despite all the attempts to extinguish it by using state force and repression.
“At the end of the day, it is not the sword that triumphs but the pen because ideas live forever, carried in the hearts of all those who dream of a better future, a future of hope, a future of progress, a future of justice and a future of prosperity.
“That is the future the PPP and I seek for our 150 million people.”
|
|
|
|
