Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari on the eve of the 39th anniversary of the ouster of the democratically elected government on July 5, 1977 said that “religious fanaticism and privatised Jihad” overthrown an elected government in 1977 and is still haunting the nation.
In a statement Asif Zardari said “The dictator [Gen Zia] started privatising Jihad, a process that was to take the jihadis’ agenda beyond national boundaries in pursuit of dubious security policies and goals. Religious fanaticism and privatised Jihad pursuing some dubious security goals continue to haunt the nation even today,”
He said that July 5 was a “black day in our national calendar on many counts”. On this day, he said, a dictator overthrew an elected prime minister and later executed him.
Zardari said in his message, without mentioning the name of Gen Ziaul Haq said “On this day, the Constitution was decimated and thus began a process of destruction of state institutions. Never before had any individual done so much destruction as was done by the dictator who hijacked the nation and national institutions on this day,”
“Truly it is a day of national shame and horror. It enjoins upon us to jealously guard democracy on one hand and to punish the dictators on the other,” he said, adding: “Dictators and usurpers of people’s rights and freedom must be punished; in the fullness of time they will be.”
