Benazir vows to fight dictatorship

Published November 16, 2002

ISLAMABAD, Nov 15: Chairperson of Pakistan People’s Party, Benazir Bhutto, on Friday vowed to continue fight against dictatorial forces till the last.

Speaking to the MNAs-elect of her party on telephone from the United States, she called upon them to uphold the democratic principles for which, she said, the party’s founder chairman had given his life and hundreds of workers faced numerous hardships.

“You are not going to the National Assembly but to the battlefield with the banners of democracy and truth,” she said.

Benazir, in her peculiar defiant tone, told the PPP MNAs-elect that all the dictatorial forces, with powers of state at their command, would be arrayed against them in parliament.

She recalled that the party had a long history of struggle and its MNAs-elect would stand against all odds to fulfil the responsibilities entrusted to them by the oppressed classes.

She said the party challenged the dictatorship of Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan and Zia-ul-Haq and would also face Pervez Musharraf. Referring to the defection in the party, she regretted that some party members could not withstand the pressure. She hoped that the “courageous” and “brave” members of the party would continue to fight.

She said the regime would try to allure or use coercive tactics to force them to switch their loyalties.

Benazir alleged that in 1989 Osama bin Laden had contributed 10 million dollars to topple her elected government.

Lashing out at the establishment, she said that once again the ISI, the intelligence agencies and the rangers had ganged up to intimidate and induce members-elect to change loyalties.

She warned the establishment that the governments may come and go, as they had been in the past, but the PPP will neither falter nor give up.

“No matter what happens and what is the outcome of this fight, we will stand for the principles and fight for them.”

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