KARACHI: President Ayub Khan has stressed the need for providing succour to the suffering mankind, as taught by Lord Buddha, in a message to the Bouddha Dhammiya Sangha, Karachi, on the occasion of a symposium held yesterday [May 23] to commemorate the 2,511th birthday of the Buddha.

The President said that the alleviation of suffering in all forms was the cause to which the Buddha dedicated his life.

The following is the text of the President’s message: “The full moon day of the month of Balshakh is a day that is thrice sacred. It was on this day twenty-five centuries ago that the Buddha was born, it was on the same day at the age of thirty-five that he attained Enlightenment and it was on the selfsame day at the age of eighty that he passed away from this mortal life.

“There is no better way in which we can pay our respect to the Buddha than by providing succour to the suffering mankind. The alleviation of suffering in all forms was the cause to which the Buddha dedicated his life.

“I wish the symposium which the Bouddha Dhammlya Sangha is organising on the study of Buddhism every success.”

[Meanwhile, as reported by a correspondent in Hyderabad,] Mr Mohammad Musa, Governor, West Pakistan is inaugurating the 215th anniversary celebrations of Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai at Bhitshah, 80 miles away from here.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2017