President Asif Ali Zardari has said that July 5 will always be remembered as one of the darkest days in the history of country that spawned tyranny, oppression and militancy on the one hand and dismantled the Constitution and democratic institutions on the other. The dismantling of democratic structures that began on July 5, 1977 reminds how one military dictator nurtured extremists for his political survival and how another dictatorship exploited the same extremists by running with the hare and hunting with the hound again for perpetuating himself in power. Let us vow to banish from the Constitution all undemocratic insertions made by the dictators from time to time, the President said in his message. President Zardari said that dictators needed to be punished even after they were dead and buried. It calls for dismantling the pernicious structures of personalized rule created by dictators by distorting the Constitution. It also calls for restoring power to the people to whom it belongs, he said. The President said the Pakistan Peoples Party which gave the nation a unanimous Constitution has, in consultation with all political and democratic forces, undertaken the process of purging the nations basic document from all undemocratic provisions. Thirty two years ago on this day a dictator forced the nation on a path of destruction. The judiciary was decimated, institutions destroyed, fundamental rights usurped, people disenfranchised, women terrorized, minorities marginalized and innocent people were flogged and hanged merely for political dissent as the corrupt elements exploited the Soviet presence in Afghanistan to line their own pockets. This indeed is a litany of horror and shame. The President said that scared of the popular appeal of Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto the dictator sought to create an artificial constituency by deliberately promoting religious extremism and privatizing 'jehad and in the process destroyed the nations fabric. July 5 will be remembered as the day on which seeds of deadly Taliban and Al Qaeda were sown by a dictator that first plunged the world into chaos and is now haunting Pakistan, he said. To banish dictatorship from Pakistan, President Zardari said, we must banish forever their strategic partners in the shape of militants, extremists and religious zealots, we will. On this day my thoughts also go to those martyrs of democracy who suffered and sacrificed during that black period of our national history. They suffered so that the future generations may live in peace, honor and in freedom. The Pakistan Peoples Party workers salute Quaid e Awam and all those who gave their lives during the trial and terror of the dictatorship and who kept alive the flame of democracy despite use of state force of repression to extinguish it. They are our heroes and the nation salutes them, the President said.