ISLAMABAD, July 5: The Pakistan People’s Party on Tuesday observed ‘black day’ in the twin cities as a protest against toppling of its government by Gen Ziaul Haq on July 5, 1977. Protest meetings and rallies were held in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi and adjoining areas to condemn military’s indulgence in politics.

They deplored that the country during most of its history remained and was still under military rule.

The PPP said in a statement that public commemoration were held in different cities, in which large number of people participated and paid rich tributes to the services rendered by the PPP founding Chairman Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto.

Speakers on the occasion strongly condemned Gen Zia’s prolonged martial law and termed it “the blackest chapter in our national history”.

They termed military rules as fatal for the unity of the federation and regretted that military rulers didn’t learn any lesson from dismembering of the former East Pakistan.

Paying rich tribute to the late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the PPP leaders reminded that the country gained the status of atomic power, unanimous Constitution of 1973 and chairmanship of all the Islamic countries during the rule of Z.A. Bhutto.

The PPP leaders held military rules responsible of terrorism, extremism and sectarianism that have engulfed the country.