KARACHI        -          Paying rich tribute to Pakistan’s first elected prime minister Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on his 92nd birth anniversary, Pakistan People’s Party’s Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that the legacy of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto  was not his name or personality but rather the leftist ideology that saw the largest gains for the people of Pakistan.

Bilawal said that Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had led a movement to devolve power to the people the forces of tyranny and regression had unsuccessfully spent the next 40 years trying to malign and sully his legacy.

The PPP chairman said that history had vindicated Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and the love that the people of Pakistan still show for him proved that he was the only leader after the founder of Pakistan Muhammad Ali Jinnah who had struggled for the empowerment of the masses.

“Soon after Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto took oath as Pakistan’s first elected prime minister, he managed to bring back 93,000 Pakistani prisoners of war and retrieved more than 5,000 kilometers of Indian occupied area of Pakistan. In addition, he gave the country its first unanimously approved Constitution of 1973 and laid the foundations for a equitable federation that promoted unity and harmony,” he added.

Bilawal added that Quaid-e Awam Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had healed the wounds of Pakistan’s second partition by recognizing the state of Bangladesh and extending a hand of friendship to Mujeebur Rehman by inviting him to the first OIC summit in Lahore.

He said that Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto  expanded Pakistan’s, till then myopic, America centric diplomatic horizons by looking Eastwards towards China and building a relationship that is now the bedrock of our international relations. By giving Pakistan a nuclear program he had also ensured the security and safety of the country from any foreign adventurism.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that it was Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who had legalised unions and outlawed anti-labour policies and gave workers a voice by making them stakeholders in  the management of industrial entities. The PPP chairman said that the political legacy of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto has been cemented in his sacrifice and is the written in the constitution which guarantees rights to 220 million Pakistanis irrespective of cast, creed, and ideology. He ensured that the PPP would always act as the guardian for their rights and freedoms.