ISLAMABAD, Dec 11: President Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday felicitated the nation on conferment of UN Award for Human Rights on Benazir Bhutto posthumously, saying it had strengthened the resolve of government and people to uphold human rights.

In a statement, the president reiterated the resolve that Pakistan would uphold basic human rights of all individuals regardless of caste, creed or any other consideration.

The UN award was received by Ms Bhutto’s son and chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, in New York on Wednesday.

The United Nations prize is awarded every five years on December 10; on the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

“It is a great day for the country, our people and the Pakistan People’s Party that its great leader has been recognised by the United Nations and the world community as a champion for upholding human rights and who laid down her life fighting for the democratic rights of her people.”

The president said when Ms Bhutto decided to come to Pakistan last year she knew fully the dangers to her life, but she returned “for the right of men and women to live in security and dignity and in liberty.”

He said she returned home for bringing democracy to the country because, she believed that “a democratic Pakistan free from the yolk of military dictatorship would cease to be the Petri dish of international terrorism.”

“As we celebrate the award let us ask ourselves the question how to protect the inherent dignity and equal rights of all people and how to address the great challenges of discrimination, oppression and injustice as dreamt by the late leader, the president said.

“To do this we need to banish militancy, strengthen the national institutions of democracy and create a credible system of accountability.

“The best way to pay tribute to the memory of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto is to refuse to compromise with the militants and expose and banish them from our midst,” he said.

The president said “on this occasion let me reiterate that the government is committed to fight militants and militancy and not let them impose their extremist agenda on the people of Pakistan through force and violence.”

Mr Zardari stressed that the slain former prime minister believed that democracy was critical to fight militancy, saying that she also believed that time, justice and the forces of history were on the side of democracy.

“To commemorate the human rights award to her therefore let us rededicate ourselves to fight against militancy and for the ideals of democracy, liberty and human dignity for which she gloriously lived and valiantly died,” he concluded.

Benazir champion of human rights: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Sherry Rehman said the United Nations human rights award for Benazir Bhutto was an honour for the entire nation.

“This award is for the leader who redefined human rights values on a global level,” Ms Rehman said a day after Pakistan People’s Party Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari accepted the posthumous award for his mother.

The minister said Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had sent the nomination of Ms Bhutto to the United Nations for this prestigious award.