PESHAWAR: Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has appreciated Supreme Court Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa for taking up the pending presidential reference that seeks to review the 1979 death sentence awarded to party founder and former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

“This presidential reference is meant to correct history, expose the facilitators of Bhutto’s hanging, and bring an improvement to the democratic system of the country,” Mr Bilawal told members of the Peshawar High Court Bar Association during a function here on Wednesday.

In June 2011, the then president and Bhutto’s son-in-law, Asif Ali Zardari, filed that reference calling for the review of the death penalty awarded by the Supreme Court in Feb 1979.

The PPP chairman said the reference provided the judiciary with an opportunity to establish that everyone has an access to justice and no one can influence court verdicts.

He criticises PTI, PDM over ‘politics of hate and divide’

“This is the only way to restore trust between institutions and the people,” he said.

Mr Bhutto said the PML-N and PTI would mock the PPP’s slogan of ‘zinda hai, Bhutto zinda hai’ (Bhutto’s legacy lives on) but the party founder and Quaid-i-Awam was the one, who sacrificed his life but made no compromise on the people’s future.

He said former prime minister and PTI leader Imran Khan and the Pakistan Democratic Movement leadership couldn’t resolve people’s problems as they played the traditional politics of hate and divide.

The PPP leader said the PTI and PDM falsely promised jobs and houses to people but his party always fulfilled its promises of people’s development.

He said after coming to power, his party would double wages of workers and promote public-private partnership and private investment for the country’s prosperity.

Mr Bilawal said the PPP’s political rivals first mocked the Benazir Income Support Programme but later recognised its contribution to the poor’s welfare.

He said Bhutto was the first prime minister to help labourers attain their rights, and the PPP would further that cause after forming government in 2024.

The PPP leader also said the pilot project Benazir Mazdoor Card launched in Sindh would be extended to other parts of the country.

He appreciated lawyers for “understanding matters through a pragmatic and rational lens” and hoped that the legal community supported his party.

He said he would interact with lawyers in future as well.

Mr Bilawal later addressed a convention of the PPP Women’s Wing and talked about the party’s election manifesto for women’s development.

“Women form 50 per cent of our population. The economy won’t progress until they contribute. They should be provided with opportunities in the economy and politics to grow like men,” he said.

Mr Bilawal said his was the country’s only political party to truly represent women.

PPP provincial president Mohammad Ali Shah Bacha, president of PPP Women’s Wing Senator Rubina Khalid and general secretary Shazia Tehmas also addressed the event.

Also in the day, the PPP chairman visited the residence of daily Frontier Post’s founder Rehmat Shah Afridi, who passed away on Sunday.

He met Mr Afridi’s widow Islam Bibi, daughter Naheed Afridi and sons Mehmood Afridi, Bilal Afridi and Ahmed Afridi, and offered condolences and Fateha.

Mr Bilawal said her mother and former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, used to call Mr Afridi her brother, who stood with her in the “worst of times,” despite being targeted by anti-democratic forces.

“Mr Afridi’s role in the promotion of English journalism is matchless,” he said.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2023