President Asif Ali Zardari has said that Pakistan Day is an occasion for expressing the resolve that no dictator will be permitted to usurp the basic fundamental rights of people or trample on democratic aspirations.
In a message on the occasion of Pakistan Day, the President said, "On this day, let us resolve that we will not permit any dictator to usurp the basic fundamental rights of our people, nor allow them to trample on our democratic aspirations."
"This requires that we work in the spirit of tolerance, mutual accommodation and respect for dissent," he added. He said 72 years ago, on this day, the Muslims of the subcontinent formally committed through a Resolution to work for achieving a separate homeland.
"With the blessings of Allah and through the heroic struggle of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the founding fathers, 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 added. The President said, "Our founding fathers had resolved to carve out an independent state where there will be democracy and where constitution and rule of law would reign supreme."
Unfortunately, successive dictators tried to stifle the democratic aspirations of the people, he said, adding the constitution and rule of law was trampled by dictators sometimes under the doctrine of necessity and sometimes under the theory of successful revolution. The President said the unanimous Constitution of 1973 was disfigured by successive dictators to suit their own political ambitions, but the democratic aspirations could never be killed.