April 29, 2008	Tuesday	Rabi-us-Sani 22, 1429

ISLAMABAD, April 28: Slain PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto’s former political secretary Naheed Khan has urged the government of her own party to name the capital’s under-construction airport after Ms Bhutto in recognition of her services for the cause of democracy and betterment of the people.

In her first statement issued after the February 18 elections and setting up of the PPP government at the centre, Ms Khan said on Monday that she was touched to hear that the City Council of Berlin, Germany, had approved a resolution to name a famous avenue in Berlin after Ms Bhutto.

Ms Khan was so much shocked over the assassination of Ms Bhutto that she did not even take part in the election campaign of the party and only addressed a corner meeting in Rawalpindi on the last day of the election campaign on February 16.

“I will like to urge the Pakistan government to name the under-construction airport of Islamabad after Benazir Bhutto, whose sacrifice has shown us a new era of a better and prosperous Pakistan and flourishing democratic system,” she said in her statement.

Ms Khan, who was with Ms Bhutto at the time of her assassination last December, also urged the government to honour Ms Bhutto with the highest civilian award — Nishan-i-Pakistan — to acknowledge her services which she rendered for the country all through her life. “Benazir Bhutto’s struggle against dictatorship and her sacrifice for democracy will remain a glorious part of our country’s history,” she said.

Ms Khan, who had remained associated with Ms Bhutto for more than two decades, has been out of the political arena since Ms Bhutto’s assassination on December 27 outside Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi where she had come to speak at an election-related public meeting.

PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, who has been commanding the party after Ms Bhutto’s death, later appointed MNA Rukhsana Bangash as his political secretary. Ms Khan’s husband Dr Safdar Abbasi is a senator.