NEW YORK: Speakers paid tributes to Benazir Bhutto for her courageous fight to uphold democracy and human rights at a meeting organised on Saturday night by the Pakistan Peoples Party’s US chapter to mark her 11th death anniversary.

PPP secretary general Syed Nayyar Hussain Bukhari, in a call from Islamabad, recounted Ms Bhutto’s services during a difficult period in Pakistan’s history and said that she had contributed to further strengthening the country’s defence by introducing missile technology.

Benazir Bhutto was killed in a gun-and-bomb attack on Dec 27, 2007, while returning from a public meeting in Rawalpindi. Saturday’s event, presided over by Mohammad Khalid Awan, a senior PPP leader, was held at a hotel in Queens, a borough of New York City.

Hafeez Kashmiri, a senior PPP, leader, was the chief guest at the meeting which pledged to follow the life and mission of Ms Bhutto.

Others who spoke were Mohammad Sulaiman Butt, Latif Dalmia, Tahir Salemi, Javid Butt, community activist Sheikh Touqeer, Pak-American Lawyers Association president Rana Ramzan, Daily Pakistan’s Arshad Choudhry, Editor of Urdu News Mohsin Zaheer, president of Sohni Watan, Gilgit-Baltistan, Nasim Gilgiti and Raja Razzaq, chief organiser of the PML-N youth wing and several others.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2018