ZAB birth anniversary observed

LAHORE
LIKE all other parts of the country, 87th birthday of PPP founder and former Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was held with simplicity as per directions of the party leadership.
The party leadership has directed organisations to hold birthday events with simplicity while keeping in view the recent Peshawar incident in which more than 130 innocent children were massacred by terrorists. The major event under the banner of the PPP central Punjab was held at Model Town, the party secretariat, which was chaired by Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo, PPP Central Punjab President.
The cake-cutting ceremony was attended by General Secretary Punjab Tanvir Ashraf Kaira, Sohail Malik, MPA Faiza Malik, former MPA Dr Zia Ullah Khan Bangash, Aurangzaib Burki, Jahan Ara Wattoo, Shahida Jabeen, Bushra Malik, Yasmeen Farooq, Javed Akhtar, Manzoor Maneka, Abid Siddiqui, Khalid But and others. In his address, Wattoo paid rich tribute to Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto who made labourers, farmers, workers, and have-nots conscious of their rights and also how to get these from the elite who were an embodiment of their exploitation.
He added that Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto granted the people of Pakistan a right to vote on the basis of adult franchise for the first time and now parliamentarians were directly elected by them unlike in the past when they were elected by the BD members or councillors who constituted the Electoral College. He said the PPP had been advocating the elimination of terrorists by taking them head-on because force was the only language they understood.
He stated that the entire political leadership had come to the same conclusion which was the vindication of the standpoint of Chairman Bilawal Bhutto and the PPP. The chairman held that terrorists were neither human beings, nor Pakistani or Muslims and they must be exterminated without fail by defeating them on their turf.
He said Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto gave a constitution to the nation that had secured the federation of the country despite many ups and downs since then.
He strongly condemned the attack of misguided miscreants who attacked the people and the media who were gathered in Lahore to show their respect to Salman Taseer. He demanded the Punjab government that culprits must be apprehended for exemplary punishment. It is not difficult to arrest them because they can be identified easily from the TV footage, he said. It will be a test case, he maintained. Talking to the media on the occasion, Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo said the PPP agreed to the establishment of military courts as the only mechanism to root out terrorism form the country. He said the military courts were only for the period of two years which would deal with the cases of terrorism referred by the federal government. Some ceremonies were also held at the residences of other party leaders in Lahore.
Wattoo: Punjab PPP president Manzoor Wattoo rejected on Monday allegations against him that he had connections with other parties, saying his ‘grouping’ was with his party which came into being by the efforts of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and not with the support of the establishment. He was speaking at a ceremony organised by Peoples Lawyers’ Forum at Lahore High Court Bar Association in connection with birth anniversary of PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
Wattoo said Bhutto would always be remembered for his services for the nation as he gave the country its first consensus Constitution and a nuclear programme. He said the PPP had a clear stance about the rights of labourers, farmers and marginalised segments of society.
It was Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who introduced Islamic Socialism during his political struggle, he added. Punjab PLF president Khuram Latif Khosa, General Secretary Iftikhar Shahid, Khawar Khatana and a larger number of lawyers and the PPP workers were present.
Manzoor Wattoo stated Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and his daughter Benazir Bhutto Shaheed were great leaders, who never bowed before brutality and always spoke against violation of fundamental rights. Criticising the PML-N leadership, Wattoo said: “Some people request terrorists to leave Punjab, but BB announced waving the country’s flag in Swat and condemned terrorism”.