RAWALPINDI: President Z.A. Bhutto declared today[March 22] that Pakistan would not be daunted by formidable problems concerning its security and survival nor surrender its honour and integrity. Unafraid of any adversary without and watchful over the enemy within, we will persevere in the long, hard task of building a Pakistan free from exploitation and at peace with all those neighbours who wish it well, he said in a message to the nation on the occasion of Pakistan Day.

The President said Pakistani people’s spirit and faith was the guarantor of our rejuvenation and that a rejuvenated Pakistan would be a source of strength to the Muslim world and an asset to the Afro-Asian community. It will ensure peace with justice in South Asia and translate into reality the lustrous vision of its creation. The President referred to the framing of the Constitution. … For 26 years, he pointed out, a power structure dominated by bureaucracy and a military junta and bolstered by self-seeking politicians thwarted the establishment of democratic institutions and denied to the people an ordered political life. The nation remained in the grip of a deadly vice forged by the egoism of one group and the obscurantism of another. — News agencies

Published in Dawn, March 23rd, 2023