ISLAMABADNULL-Chairman PPP and President Asif Ali Zardari on Sunday said the party workers were determined to foil conspiracies and would continue the forward march to build a modern, progressive, egalitarian and democratic Pakistan in which the poor and downtrodden will also live with honour and dignity.

Let us on this anniversary reiterate our commitment to foil all conspiracies against the party and vow to uphold principles of democratic empowerment, end of militancy and economic opportunity for all as envisioned by Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and for which she laid down her life, he said in a statement on the eve of the 43rd founding day of the Pakistan Peoples Party on November 30.
 
The PPP Co-Chairman said the celebrations this year are taking place at a time when the party, its leaders and government is subjected to a vicious campaign to tarnish its image by the remnants of dictatorship even as it has been elected by the people through a democratic vote. 

Let us make it clear that no matter what our adversaries may do Bhuttoism still continues with vigour and intensity to empower the people, extricate them from deprivation and foil conspiracies against their empowerment”, he added. Zardari said that the party has always served the masses with distinction and would continue to do so in future as well.

Recalling the achievements of the Party, the Co-Chairman said that the party gave the country a unanimous 1973 Constitution, gave rights to minorities, labour and women, provided press freedom besides promoting democratic culture in the country.

It is the PPP which gave the nation nuclear and missile technology, the Steel Mills, Karakoram Highway, Kamra Aeronautical Complex, Heavy Mechanical Complex, Heavy Engineering Complex, Gwadar Port and Multan Oil refinery to name only a few, he added. During the last nearly twenty months, the PPP government has achieved what others could not do in years, he said.

The Co-Chairman said that the present government of the PPP gave political ownership to the war against militancy, launched a massive poverty alleviation program the Benazir Income Support program (BISP), took measures to help farmers and extricated the country out of near economic meltdown.

During a short span of twenty months, the government introduced far reaching political reforms in Gilgit Baltistan, gave unprecedented Balochistan Empowerment Package to heal the festering wounds of the people of the province as well as announced reforms in the Tribal Areas, he said.

Zardari said the PPP government also reinstated sacked employees through legislation, gave free shares to the workers in state run enterprises, embarked upon a massive public private partnership to make people stakeholders in development projects, introduced the culture of national reconciliation and secured strategic support to Pakistan under the umbrella of Friends of Democratic Pakistan.

The amendments in the Constitution have almost been finalized in consultation with all parties to make it truly democratic and federal in character which will be announced soon, he said. He said these are great victories of the people of Pakistan and especially of the PPP workers.

Paying tributes to the party workers the PPP Co-Chairman said, “As we reflect on these successes our thoughts go out to Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, to the hundreds of martyrs of democracy who gave their lives for the cause of democracy and empowering people. Our thoughts also go to our valiant soldiers, policemen and members of the law enforcing agencies who laid down their lives to save the country from terrorism and militancy.

He said that the courageous and devoted workers of PPP are the strength of the party and the nation. “They have never, and never will, waver in their quest for a modern, progressive and democratic Pakistan. The dream of democracy has survived on their sweat, blood and tears. It is because of them that dictatorship has not been able to take roots in Pakistan”, he added.

The PPP Co-Chairman said; the epic struggle for transforming Pakistan from backwardness into a modern, democratic and welfare nation state resting on the power of its people will continue no matter what our detractors say or do.