The Quaid-i-Awam Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto awakened the people and led the collective national effort to give the country a unanimous Constitution that was federal, democratic and Parliamentary in character to keep the nation united. That constitution was distorted and mutilated by successive dictatorships.
Today on the eve of his 31st martyrdom anniversary it is most reassuring that the nation is poised to restore to democratic Constitution by removing from it all vestiges of dictatorship. The restoration of the Constitution is indeed a befitting tribute to the leader of masses who sacrificed his life for the people, democracy and the Constitution.
The steps taken to restore the Constitution reaffirm the political philosophy of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto that the people alone are the legitimate fountainhead of political power. We pledge to continue our forward march to empower the people. On this day while paying tributes to our Shaheed leader I also whish to thank all those who made possible the nation's march to restore the democratic Constitution and empower the people and the Parliament.
Inculcating in the people the belief that political power belonged to them was a singular achievement of Shaheed Bhutto as no dictatorship since then has been able to rob the masses of the power of this realization. Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto led the fight against dictatorship from the front and willingly laid down his life for the cause of the people to join the ranks of immortals. Leader like him are born only once in generations.
It is indeed a lasting tribute to his memory that Bhutto and Bhuttoism still lives in the hearts and minds of the people. From his grave, Shaheed Bhutto haunts dictators. Reverberations of "Jeeay Bhutto" still send shivers in the enemies of democracy.
Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto believed in dialogue and negotiations as the principal instruments to resolve most complex national and international political issues. He demonstrated it, at the national level, by giving the country a unanimous Constitution and, at the international level, by recovering the territory lost in the 1971 war, bringing back tens of thousands of prisoners of war and preventing trial of our military officers to protect the name and honor of the country.
The years of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto will always be remembered as years that witnessed the nation filled with vitality and driven by a sense of purpose and shared destiny. He will be remembered as "Pakistan's modernizer" who left deep footprints in the sands of history.
On this anniversary of Shaheed Bhutto, we celebrate the life he lived and the successes he achieved in making Pakistan strong and prosperous. ON this day I urge the Party workers to rededicate themselves to the ideals for which Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto lived and laid down his life in the cause of the people.