ISLAMABAD: Former president of Pakistan and President Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians Asif Ali Zardari and PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that July 5 will always be remembered as the black day in Pakistan’s history.
“The dictators perish but history never forgives them and the 5th July, 1977 remains a black blot, when a dictator ended a democratic government in a military coup, in the history of Pakistan,” said former president Asif Ali Zardari in a statement on Sunday.
Zardari said that the faces of dictators keep changing but their thinking does not change. “Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto defeated two dictators through democratic struggle and the struggle for democracy is not over yet,” he said. He said that the narrative that Parliament is supreme will surely prevail. He paid rich tribute to those who sacrificed their lives for the Constitution and democracy in Pakistan.
Zardari said that the 18th Amendment is a democratic revenge against dictators. “Undermining Parliament is revenge with democracy. The 1973 Constitution guarantees security for the federation,” he said.
In a separate statement, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said the military coup that toppled the first democratically-elected people’s government, led by prime minister Shaheed Zulfikar Ali (ZA) Bhutto, by a tin-pot dictator General Zia, marked the vicious assault on the democratic aspirations of the people of Pakistan. He said that Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had united the nation by picking up the pieces following the fall of Dhaka, and bringing together the nation in a vibrant democratic system with strong economic ambitions.
