Ten years ago, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto's martyrdom on 27 December 2007 threw the entire nation into a chaotic grief. This historic tragedy posed immediate threats to national unity. To this day, I am extremely proud to have summoned the courage in those testing moments of grief and gloom to see right through the terrorists' strategy of national disintegration. I had to personally rise up to the challenge. With my pronouncement of "Pakistan Khappay," every hope of success for the terrorists died, and was buried forever.
Later, as I became the President of Pakistan, I never for once delved on the idea of revenge and vengeance, again for the sake of national unity. Instead, I am proud to have adhered to the vision of my great leaders, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Shaheed Benazir Bhutto. As a President, my foremost priority was to lead the nation out of the crises, solidify and strengthen the strategies and national commitment to ending terrorism. We took the fight directly to the terrorists within their strongholds. The successful operation in Swat followed by similar successes in South and North Waziristan remain the brightest achievements of the Pakistani armed forces and the Pakistan People's Party in government. Similarly, the successes of the Zarb-e-Azb operation and the National Action Plan in Sindh have been our key achievements as an opposition party and as a ruling party in Sindh, and we are similarly committed to the long-lasting success of Operation Raddul Fasad.
I have no qualms to attribute my every success as the President of Pakistan and as a leader of the Pakistan People's Party to our learning from Shaheed Benazir Bhutto and Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Shaheed Benazir Bhutto, thanks to her struggle and sacrifice is the ultimate role model for all peace loving people, for all times to come. There is absolutely no other parallel in modern history for how the Bhutto family has laid their own lives for the cause of the nation.
The great Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto sacrificed his life for making Pakistan one of the strongest nations in the world by helping it acquire nuclear power, against all odds. His daughter Benazir Bhutto laid her life in public view, at Liaqat Bagh Rawalpindi, while resisting and challenging retrogressive forces, terrorists, and their supporters. Like many others, the Bhuttos too could have turned a blind eye or could have looked the other way. They chose not to.
At a time when others were making compromises with terrorists who were killing innocent Pakistanis in the thousands left, right and center, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto came out all guns blazing, challenging terrorists and their sympathizers with what she knew worked: the power of the people. The terrorists too knew that Benazir Bhutto was one of the only and most formidable hurdle in their path march towards Islamabad. It was either the terrorists or Benazir Bhutto. In their confusion, the terrorists responded with their own best strategy which was to physically eliminate her. The terrorists best strategy became their worst failure too. Perhaps, with a little knowledge of recent history, the terrorists and their sympathizers would have easily figured out that eliminating Benazir Bhutto and her vision was akin to eliminating Bhutto and his mission. No power on earth could do this. This was proven by history at the time and this stands proven all over again. Ultimately, it was Benazir Bhutto's martyrdom which galvanized the people and progressive forces of Pakistan to take terrorism head on. While the struggle continues even today in the form of Zarb-e-Azb and the National Action Plan, we the Pakistan People's Party are fully satisfied with what we have achieved in this struggle so far.
Instead of making compromises and taking the easy ways out, our great leaders took the challenges and threats, to the very existence of Pakistan, head on. They made the bravest decisions in our history and paid the ultimate cost for those decisions too, but also successfully set Pakistan on the path of eternal strength, democracy, peace and prosperity.
From the strong foundation that the Bhuttos have built and provided, Pakistan is bound to rise and prosper for all times to come.
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