News
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Constitution will be upheld unequivocally: Asif Zardari
ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday reiterated his resolve of not permitting any dictator to usurp basic fundamental rights of the people and not allowing them to trample on the democratic aspirations of the nation.
“Let us also resolve that we will uphold the constitution and never allow it to be abrogated, subverted or held in abeyance,” President Zardari said in a message to the nation on the eve of Pakistan Day. Zardari said the current situation required working in the spirit of tolerance, mutual accommodation and respect for dissent.
He said March 23 was an auspicious occasion, as 71 years ago the Muslims of the subcontinent had formally committed to work towards achieving a separate homeland for themselves. “With the blessings of Allah and through their own heroic struggle, the Muslims of the subcontinent achieved their objective on August 14, 1947, within a short span of seven years of the expression of their resolve,” he said.
The president said the country’s founding fathers had resolved to carve out an independent state based on democratic norms and where constitutionalism and rule of law would reign supreme. “Unfortunately, successive dictators tried to stifle the democratic aspirations of the people. Constitutionalism and rule of law was trampled by dictators, sometimes under the doctrine of necessity and sometime under the theory of successful revolution,” he said. Zardari said successive dictators had disfigured the constitution of 1973 in accordance with their own political ambitions, however, he stressed that the democratic aspirations could never be killed.
“The Pakistan Day this year will go down in the history of the country as the memorable day when parliament and the nation are poised to take a giant leap forward to realise the dream for which Pakistan was created by strengthening parliamentary democracy, federalism and constitutionalism,” he added. President Zardari said it was the manifestation of the democratic urge of the people that parliament was poised to purge the constitution of all amendments inserted into it by successive dictators.
Zardari complimented the parliament and the nation for the purpose and hoped that the people, parliament, and all institutions of the state would work in harmony towards this end. app
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk