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کل بھی بھٹو زندہ تھا،آج بھی بھٹو زندہ ھے

#Pakistan - The day Salman Taseer fell silent

His killing adds another bloodstained chapter to the history of a country that's been held hostage by agents of hatred.

“I remember Bhutto saying history is written in the blood of martyrs,” Salman Taseer said while giving an interview to monthly Herald in 2008, two years before he was gunned down by his security guard in Islamabad.

His violent death adds another bloodstained chapter to the history of a country that has been frequently held hostage by agents of hatred. Taseer was born in 1946.

His father Mohammad Deen Taseer (famously known as M.D. Taseer) was a poet and guides to legends like Faiz Ahmed Faiz as well as being one of the founders of the Progressive Writers’ Movement in the 1930s.

His mother Christabel (Bilquees) was a British leftist activist and elder sister of Alys, later Alys Faiz. The two sisters had left their homes and come to India where they met their future husbands.Taseer studied at Saint Anthony’s School and the Government College Lahore — institutions where he was a few years senior to Nawaz Sharif.In the 1960s, he went to England to study accountancy. Early in his professional career, he successfully set up two chartered accountancy and management consultancy firms in the UAE and Pakistan.In 1994, he established First Capital Securities Corporation Limited (FCSC), a full service brokerage house and had been actively involved in establishing other companies in the financial services sector as well as the telecommunications, media, insurance and real estate/property development sectors in Pakistan.

Taseer authored a number of articles on investment and financial subjects.

When he picked up the pen to write on politics, there was little surprise that he chose Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as his topic. The outcome was ‘Bhutto: A political biography’.

Taseers’s association with the Pakistan People’s Party went way back in time. In his maiden speech after taking charge as governor of Punjab in 2008, he declared that he wanted to turn Lahore into another Larkana for the PPP.

He was elected to the Punjab Assembly from Lahore in the 1988 election. That was his only electoral victory and he lost the elections in 1990, 1993 and then in 1997.Taseer was among the PPP stalwarts who were drawn to Gen Pervez Musharraf, even though he did not formally join the general’s establishment until agreeing to be a federal minister for commerce and industry in the caretaker set-up of Muhammadmian Soomro in 2007-08.While the caretakers wrapped up after overseeing the general election in 2008, the tag of being a Musharraf associate stuck to Taseer until his death.The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz strongly criticised his appointment as governor in May 2008. The PML-N called him a Musharraf’s man “installed to destabilise its government in Punjab”.

Over the next two and a half years, Taseer was involved in a war of words with the PML-N, especially Shahbaz Sharif’s law minister Rana Sanaullah.

The worst in the series came when Sanaullah targeted the Taseers in a malicious campaign that found the law minister distributing ‘objectionable’ pictures of the governor’s family among media personnel and MPAs outside the Punjab Assembly.

Salman Taseer was not known to take any accusation levelled against him lying down and would react with anger to anything that was thrown his way.

And he was not averse to initiating a few attacks and a few controversies of his own. He was perhaps the only man from his party to have raised voice for the construction of Kalabagh dam. He said the dam was the “need of the hour”. As governor, he frequently clashed with the Sharifs. He invoked his experience as a fortune-maker as he sought to win over Punjab’s trading community and applying his own ideology to paint the Sharifs as the supporters of extremist groups. He was severe on both Shahbaz Sharif and Rana Sanaullah after some photographs which made it to the newspaper pages showed the provincial law minister currying favour with leaders of a banned outfit in the run-up to a by-election in Jhang last year. Later on in the year, Sanaullah targeted the governor for disappearing and going on a clandestine visit abroad, leaving the province without its constitutional head.

Taseer remained defiant in the face of punches thrown at him. Some time later he turned up in person at a Lahore photo exhibition to prove his detractors wrong after a section of the media had reported that he had gone on another of his foreign missions.

Taseer never made any secret of his take on the Sharifs with whom he had long and unsuccessfully contested power in Lahore and Punjab. It appeared as if he was eager to use his position as the governor to press his case. Taseer was also tortured by police in November 1992 when Nawaz Sharif was the prime minister — an incident which he later remarked had rid him of all fears about his person.

In what could have led to his assassination, he also followed a line on the blasphemy law which was independent of the PPP. He spoke with passion about the case of Aasia Bibi who had been sentenced to death by a lower court, and even committed to seeking a presidential pardon for her.

This landed Taseer in trouble with a group of people who accused him of trying to protect a blasphemer. There were protests outside the Governor’s House in Lahore and rallies in other parts of the country. Some relatively less known clerics issued edicts calling for his head. This led to concerns being expressed about his safety, something he himself was not always too bothered about. Governor Taseer was all too keen to steal a few moments for himself, his family and friends from the hectic itinerary he had to follow as the constitutional head of the province of Punjab.

Farrukh Shah, his media adviser, said Taseer would often “prefer to move without security” and would say he was not afraid of death. A couple of messages Salman Taseer sent out during his last days sum up his views on what turned out to be the last of his many battles. The son of a poet, he quoted Faiz in a television interview: ‘Rakht-i-dil baandh lo, dil figaro chalo / Phir hameen qatl ho aayen yaaro chalo’ (Let’s charge our bruised hearts and go; Come friends, let it be our heads again). As a man keen to stay abreast with times, he tweeted on the Internet only days before his assassination: “I was under huge pressure sure 2 cow down b4 rightist pressure on blasphemy. Refused. Even if I’m the last man standing.”

https://www.dawn.com/news/1230498/the-day-salman-taseer-fell-silent

Z A Bhutto's letter to Jinnah before Pakistan's independence

 

• Former President of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto wrote a letter to Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah back in 1945.
• Bhutto wrote the letter at the age of 17 in which he talked about his interest in politics.
• Jinnah advised Bhutto to study politics and not neglect education.

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Former President and Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto wrote a letter to Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah back in 1945 on April 26 when Pakistan hadn’t come into existence yet.

Bhutto wrote the letter at the age of 17 in which talked about his interest in politics and admired the efforts of Quaid-e-Azam for an independent country, to which Jinnah gave him a piece of advice.

Bhutto wrote in the letter: “You have brought us under one platform. Every Muslim should have a wish for an independent Pakistan as Pakistan is our destiny and aim.”

“No one can stop us from being an independent country. We are a nation and you have united us,” Bhutto continued.

He further stated in the letter that he is unable to play a significant role towards the creation of Pakistan as he is still a student, adding that a time will come when he will sacrifice his life for Pakistan. 

Jinnah replied to the letter on May 1, 1945. 

The letter stated: "I am happy to read your letter and to know that you have been taking part in political events."

He continued the letter by giving him the advice to study politics and to not neglect education. 

Quaid-e-Azam further said that he believes that Bhutto will be a successful person if he studies the political issues of India. 

https://www.geo.tv/latest/389779-bhuttos-letter-to-jinnah-in-before-pakistans-independence

قائدعوام شہید نے ملک کو ایٹمی قوت بنایا,1973ءکا آئین دیا، ایٹمی پروگرام اور 1973ءکا آئین قوم کے پاس شہید بھٹو کی امانت ہیں۔ سابق صدر پاکستان اور صدر پاکستان پیپلزپارٹی پارلیمنٹیرینز آصف علی زرداری

 

سابق صدر پاکستان اور پاکستان پیپلزپارٹی پارلیمنٹیرینز کے صدر آصف علی زرداری نے پاکستان پیپلزپارٹی کے بانی چیئرمین قائد عوام ذوالفقار علی بھٹو شہید کے یوم ولادت کے موقع پر انہیں خراج عقیدت پیش کرتے ہوئے اس عہد کی تجدید کی ہے کہ شہید قائد عوام کے بلند کئے ہوئے پرچم کو سربلند رکھیں گے۔

 انہوں نے کہا کہ ذوالفقار علی بھٹو شہید نے 1971ءمیں جنگ سے تباہ ہونے والے ملک کی دوبارہ تعمیر کی، شکست خوردہ قوم کو باوقار قوموں میں شامل کیا، دشمن کی قید سے 93ہزار فوجی جوانوں کو باعزت طریقے سے واپس لئے، بھارت کے قبضے میں گئی ہوئی زمین ہزاروں مربع زمین واپس لی۔

 آصف علی زرداری نے کہا کہ قائدعوام شہید نے ملک کو ایٹمی قوت بنایا,1973ءکا آئین دیا، ایٹمی پروگرام اور 1973ءکا آئین قوم کے پاس شہید بھٹو کی امانت ہیں۔ 

انہوں نے کہا کہ شہید ذوالفقار علی بھٹو نے عوام کو سیاسی شعور دے کر بولنے کا ڈھنگ سکھایا تھا۔ وہ دنیا بھر میں چلنے والی جمہوری تحریکوں کے حامی تھے اور اسلامی دنیا کے باہمی اتحاد کے بانی تھے۔ انہوں نے کہا کہ قائد عوام شہید کے فلسفے کے مطابق پاکستان پیپلزپارٹی ملک کو مشکلات سے نکالے گی۔ پاکستان پیپلزپارٹی پارلیمنٹ کی بالادستی اور آئین کی حکمرانی کے اصولوں پر قائم ہے۔ انہوں نے کہا کہ غربت، جہالت اور عوام کا استحصال کرنے والوں کے خلاف جنگ جاری رہے گی۔

https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/26016/

Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari describes Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as an invincible movement of people of Pakistan

Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is now an unforgettable history and invincible movement, while the slogan of Jiye Bhutto is the mirror, every dictatorial and anti-people thinking individual is afraid to face.

In his message on the 94th anniversary of the first elected Prime Minister of Pakistan and the Founder Chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party, the Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said, “I pay tribute to Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, whose style of politics and governance provided Pakistanis with the opportunity to come close to the state for the first time and take the reins of the country in their own hands.

He said that the Quaid-e-Awam was the first leader to declare the people as the source of power and laid the foundation of a democratic ideological party which defended the rights and interests of the people of Pakistan. “Bhutto Shaheed was and will always be a source of encouragement to the oppressed, and deprived people of the country” he added.

Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that after Quaid-e-Azam, if anyone has given the most service and sacrifices for the country and the nation, it is Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He used his political savvy and diplomatic skills to lift a broken country, put it back on its feet, got freed 93,000 Prisoners of War (PoWs) and reclaimed 5,000 square miles of land from enemy occupation.

He said that Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto gave the first unanimous Constitution to the war-torn country, launched a nuclear program to make the national defense invincible, and laid strong foundations for the economy and industries. Steps such as universal suffrage, agrarian reform, equality, elimination of all forms of discrimination, empowerment of women and the weaker sections of society are the hallmarks of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. During the rule of Quaid-e-Awam, significant progress was made in every sector of Pakistan.

He further said that unparalleled services and uncompromising ideals are the reasons why Bhutto is still alive in the hearts and minds of the people.

Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari further said that the best way to pay homage to Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is to remember his sacrifices and ideology and work together for the growth of prosperity, security and a bright future of the country.

The Chairman PPP reiterated his commitment that the PPP will continue to safeguard the gift given by its founding Chairman Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the unanimous Constitution of 1973, which is the assurance of our national unity and harmony. Moreover, PPP will continue to strive to make Pakistan a true federal democratic country and a greater and stronger state.

Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also reiterated that his party would continue to provide political, moral and ethical support to the legitimate independence movement of the people of Occupied Kashmir, as the Quaid-e-Awam had laid the foundation of his party on the Kashmir issue. “I am sure that the day is not far when Indian domination will end and our Kashmiri brothers will get back their land,” said Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/26014/