Tinkering with Constitution to be disaster: Zardari

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) Chairman Asif Ali Zardari Tuesday said disrespecting the political consensus on the 18th Amendment and tinkering with it in any unconstitutional manner will be a political disaster.

In a statement on the 39th martyrdom anniversary of the PPP founder and former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, he said all the provinces had complete consensus on the 18th Amendment.

Zardari reiterated his party’s commitment to democracy, citizens’ freedom and autonomy of the federating units. He said Bhutto Shaheed had given the country a consensus constitution based on the principles of respect for the rights of citizens and autonomy of the federating units.

He said the 18th Amendment given unanimously by the PPP government was aimed at removing the distortions introduced by dictators in the 1973 Constitution and protecting and strengthening the rights of citizens as well as the provinces. “Today, as we rededicate ourselves to the political ideals of Shaheed Bhutto, we also pledge to protect and defend democracy, individual freedom and provincial autonomy. All power belongs to the people and it must flow from the ballot box and not from the bullet,” he said. “We need to imbibe the true meaning of the everlasting lesson in politics bequeathed to us by the party’s founding chairman.

Shaheed Bhutto was an extraordinary leader and innumerable ordinary people who came in contact with him themselves became extraordinary,” he said. He said Bhutto’s greatest achievement was that he gave hope to the people when it seemed to have evaporated and lit the path with his blood when there was darkness all around.