Dr.Abdul Razak Shaikh
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto ((5 January 1928 – 4 April 1979) was a Pakistani politician who served as the 9th Prime minister of Pakistan from 1973 to 1977, and prior to that as the 4th President of Pakistan from 1971 to 1973. Today we celebrate the Birthday of Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Pakistan’s first directly elected Prime Minister and Founder-Chairman of Pakistan People’s Party. His life was a clarion call to the dispossessed and the down-trodden to rid them of despair by seizing control of their own destiny. He was a visionary and a statesman who saved Pakistan from disintegration after the military regime of Gen. Yahya Khan had left the country in the ashes of defeat. A nation demoralized by the disgraceful surrender at Dacca was revitalized and reborn as he took the nation to the heights of glory. He gave the country the only unanimous Constitution, the democratic, representative and Islamic Constitution of 1973, which became the rallying cry of the entire opposition during its battle against the usurpation of power by thse military regime in 1977. Under his auspices, the second Islamic Summit Conference was held at Lahore where more Muslim Monarchs Presidents and Prime Ministers gathered than at any time in Muslim history. The measure of Muslim unity in his time was symbolized by the Muslim Heads of State and Government bowing in submission before Almighty Allah at Lahore’s Badshahi Mosque. It was here that he coined the term “Soldier of Islam” and considered every Muslim cause his own. During the Ramazan War, soldiers of Pakistan assisted Arab countries in their hour of need. He was a builder, and the concrete and stone monuments he built stand in silent memory to the era of progress and prosperity. He built not only monuments but modern Taj Mahals of development– the Karakorum Highway, the Steel Mills, the Heavy Mechanical Complex at Taxila, the Mirage Rebuild factory. His voice was the voice of the poor and he broke the hack of an inequitable and exploitative system to give peasants land and labor their right. He believed in the idealism of the youth and built colleges for them across every His voice was the voice of the poor and he broke the hack of an inequitable and exploitative system to give peasants land and labor their right. He believed in the idealism of the youth and built colleges for them across every district. He built hospitals and technical complexes; he built the first fertilizer factory of South Asia in Pakistan. He carried the world development — tarraqi which his enemies mocked at the time but were obliged to ape with the passage of time. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Politics of Charisma; He was a man of courage and integrity who believed that the honor of the people was his own honor. He was fearless in his defiance` of the military dictatorship refusing to compromise with them. He defied death and became a martyr. His suffering became the suffering of the nation, his victory in death, the victory of the nation; his martyrdom the inspiration of the democratic struggle as thousands of youth stepped forward with the battle cry “Jeay Bhutto”. Throughout the world, his name reverberated in the homes of exiles, in the demonstrations for freedom, in the movements to overthrow the dictatorship. He haunted the enemies of the people in the portals of power. State power’ state patronage, state machinery could not quell the tide waters of his idea and concept for freedom, dignity and an end to poverty. Such men as he lives forever. He lives in each one of us, us who believe in peace, progress a and prosperity. “Zinda Hai Bhutto, Zinda Hai”. I met thrice a time with his Excellency, when I was a boy of an age 15 years, time passed but we never forget the person who sacrificed for his country. History will never forget the brave leader of Pakistan.
