LAHORE: Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto declared today [Aug 13] that the Pakistani nation had achieved stability and chosen dynamism as its emblem now. The nation has embarked on an odyssey of renewal and reform, he said, in a message on the eve of the 30th Independence Day of the country. Noting that though a large number of people were suffering much sorrow at the damage done by floods, Mr Bhutto said he was impressed during his tour of the affected areas with the fortitude … of the people. Commending this quality … [he] said “the people’s spirit is our principal resource”. ...[He] recalled that Pakistan was born in heroism and sacrifice.

Despite the crippling effects of the 1971 war, the occurrence of … flood and drought and a hostile international economic setting “we have made rapid strides in building a firm economic base of our future progress and prosperity”, he said. About Pakistan’s relations at international level the [PM] said Pakistan had striven to give a coherence to its relations with the world outside. He said he would like the nation to be aware of the effort that had been made to rescue Pakistan’s external relationships from a quagmire of incoherence.

Published in Dawn, August 14th, 2026