News
Sunday, April 04, 2010
Bhutto’s 31st death anniversary today* Party observing anniversary amid successes in handling internal threats, constitutional reforms, giving new name to NWFP
By Muhammad Akram
LAHORE: Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s 31st death anniversary will be observed today (Sunday), at a time when the party he founded, the Pakistan People’s Party, is in power for the fourth time and close to clearing the 1973 Constitution from amendments introduced by military dictators.
The 18th Amendment Bill that the ruling PPP has tabled in parliament is most likely to become a law in a week’s time, and the party, its leader and workers can take pride in following their founder’s footsteps by giving the nation a constitution and a sense of direction. In the past, the party had been marking Bhutto’s death anniversary with a resolve to restore the 1973 Constitution to its original form, but this time, it can take the credit for clearing the mess in the constitution and following the true footsteps of Zulfikar and Benazir Bhutto. Although the PPP is not enjoying the best of times in the government, it has achieved what many governments could not. The PPP is the most popular party today and confronting challenges such as extremism and terrorism head on in accordance with the way of Zulfikar and his daughter Benazir.
Laurels: Today’s PPP government is calculative in handling internal threats and has earned laurels by addressing issues like constitutional reforms, addressing the deprivation of the people of Balochistan, giving NWFP a name that its inhabitants want, a consensus on the National Finance Commission Award to the satisfaction of all four federating units and leading the effort to purge Swat and South Waziristan of militants. Despite these meticulous achievements, the right to association for labourers and peasants, which helped Bhutto create a formidable political party, is almost non-existent. But more non-existent is the will and courage that made the working classes of the 1970s and 1980s stand up for their rights. The judicial system in today’s Pakistan is as secluded as it was ever before. Except for calling the verdict of Zulfikar’s hanging a judicial murder and that dictator Ziaul Haq manoeuvred the verdict from the bench, nothing concrete could be done on that count. The PPP that Zulfikar created emerged from schools, colleges, universities, fields, mills and factories. Today’s PPP appears to have no idea of entering into dialogue with a youth that has gone cyber and has shunned old methods of communication.
The PPP needs to groom genuine leadership among students, peasants and the labour class to manifold its support. The present PPP government has a lot to do to justify its slogan of being the party of the masses.
However, the approval of the 18th Amendment Bill would be the best tribute to the party’s founder and his successor Benazir, as both strived and laid down their lives for the supremacy of parliament.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk