PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that July 5, 1977 will always be remembered as a black day in the history of Pakistan when the military rebellion under the leadership of dictator General Ziaul Haq made an impudent attack on the democratic aspirations of Pakistani people, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Monday.

Bilawal said that on that fateful day - July 5 - the rebellion led by military dictator Zia had toppled the democratically elected government of late prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

“It was Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who had united the broken nation of Pakistan after the fall of Dhaka. Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had united these broken people under the bonds of the democratic system and strong economic institutions.”

Bilawal said that the democratically elected prime minister supervised the approval of the unanimously adopted constitution of Pakistan. Late Bhutto had laid the foundations of Pakistan’s macroeconomy and gave the right of citizenship and passport to every Pakistani.

The elected leader had snatched the right of governance from some selected persons and devolved the power to the people and made them powerful, the PPP chairman said.

He was of the view that July 5, 1977 martial law was the worst attack on the country’s history, the consequences of which Pakistan was still facing after the passage of several decades. The rebellion sowed the seeds of intolerance, extremism and terrorism in the country and let these negative notions seeped deep in our society.

Bilawal said that martyr ZAB had united the Muslim Ummah and led the Islamic world through his farsighted political acumen. He said late ZAB confronted two dictators and fought a battle for the rights of the people. He accepted gallows but refused to budge from his stance.

His daughter, martyr Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto had fought bravely against the dictatorship after him, stated the PPP chairman. He said that ZAB’s followers and supporters were made subject to every kind of inhuman torture including lashes, solitary confinement and hanging.

He said the war was still going on between democratic and despotic forces. He stated that ZAB had warned that give the power to the people, otherwise everything would be destroyed.

Bilawal was of the opinion that these words were true even in today’s conditions as we still were fighting for the survival of democracy in the country. He said ZAB was still alive while those who heaped pain and suffering on him, were part of the trash bin of the history piling curse on their heads for ages to come.

Reporter Usman Javed