Thursday, January 7, 2021
Biden decries Trump mob: 'Don't call them protesters. They were domestic terrorists'
Lauren Gambino
President-elect Joe Biden condemned as “domestic terrorists” the violent mob of Donald Trump supporters that stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday, calling the assault on the seat of American government “one of the darkest days in the history of our nation”.
“They weren’t protesters – don’t dare call them protesters,” Biden said in remarks from Wilmington, Delaware, on Thursday. “They were a riotous mob. Insurrectionists. Domestic terrorists. It’s that basic. It’s that simple.”
Biden spoke hours after Congress formally certified his victory in the November presidential election, a constitutionally mandated ritual that was disrupted by rioters seeking to keep Trump in power.
In his remarks, Biden blamed Trump for inciting the violence that had transpired in his name.
“For the past four years we’ve had a president who has made his contempt for our democracy, our constitution, and the rule of law clear in everything he has done,” Biden said. “He has unleashed an all-out assault on the institutions of our democracy.”
For hours, loyalists of the president roamed the halls of Congress as law enforcement struggled to respond. Some waved Trump flags, others carried Confederate flags. They broke windows and trampled through the Senate chamber.
As the events unfolded on Wednesday, Biden said he received a text from his granddaughter, Finnegan, with a photo of the police presence outside the Lincoln Memorial last summer when Black Lives Matter activists demonstrated against the police killing of George Floyd.
Pointing to the strikingly different response from law enforcement to Wednesday’s largely white mob, she wrote: “Pop, this isn’t fair.” Biden agreed.
“No one can tell me that if it had been a group of Black Lives Matter protesters yesterday, they would have been treated very, very differently than the mob of thugs that stormed the Capitol,” Biden said, his voice swelling with indignation. “We all know that’s true. And it’s unacceptable. Totally unacceptable.”
In labeling the rioters “domestic terrorists”, Biden was reflecting his commitment to combating far-right extremism, a growing threat the current administration has largely ignored.His remarks came as he introduced his nominee for attorney general, Judge Merrick Garland, as well as three other officials to lead the justice department. Biden said the attorney general would serve as the “people’s lawyer” and that his nominees would help restore judicial independence to the department.
“Your loyalty is not to me,” he told his intended nominees. “It’s to the law, the constitution, the people of this nation, to guarantee justice.”
Garland, who currently serves as a judge on the US court of appeals for the District of Columbia circuit, said Wednesday’s assault on Congress was a reminder that “the rule of law is not just some lawyer’s turn of phrase. It is the very foundation of our democracy.”
Speaking after Biden, Garland recalled the history of the justice department, which was created in 1870 during the period of Reconstruction to protect the civil rights of newly emancipated Black citizens against the terrorism of the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups.
“These principles ensuring the rule of law and making the promise of equal justice under law real are the great principles under which the Department of Justice was founded and for which it must always stand,” Garland said, speaking after Biden.
“They echo today in the priorities that lie before us, from ensuring racial equity in our justice system to meeting the evolving threat of violent extremism. If confirmed, those are the principles to which I will be devoted as attorney general.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/07/joe-biden-trump-mob-domestic-terrorists
USA Today Editorial Board Calls For Trump To Be Removed With 25th Amendment
By Josephine Harvey
“Trump’s continuance in office poses unacceptable risks to America,” the editorial read.
The editorial board of USA Today called Thursday for President Donald Trump’s removal from office through the 25th Amendment, condemning him for inciting Wednesday’s violent assault on the U.S. Capitol.
“By egging on this deadly insurrection and hailing the rioters (‘We love you, you’re very special’), the president forfeited his moral authority to hold the nation’s highest office, even for 13 more days,” the publication’s editorial board wrote.
“More urgent, he reinforced profound questions, and raised new ones, about his judgment and ability to fulfill his most minimal responsibilities to the country he is supposed to lead and protect. Trump’s continuance in office poses unacceptable risks to America.”
USA Today joined the editorial boards of other newspapers, including The Washington Post and Miami Herald, as well as many Democratic lawmakers and some Republicans, in calling for Trump’s removal through the 25th Amendment. The amendment allows the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet to declare a president unfit for office, allowing the vice president to assume presidential duties.
It would be a rare step; the amendment has never been invoked to remove a sitting president, though it has been used when presidents were temporarily incapacitated. Proponents argue that Trump’s behavior has indicated he is unfit to carry out his duties and poses an urgent threat to democracy.
On Wednesday, hundreds of Trump supporters breached the Capitol building after the president whipped them up with a speech falsely declaring the election was stolen from him and then encouraged them to march on the Capitol. At least four people died in the violence, including a woman who was shot.
As the disturbing events unfolded, Trump did little to stop them. He called for peace but then told the rioters he loved them and that they were “special.”
“People close to Trump say his mental state is fragile,” the USA Today board noted.
“Even though he committed early Thursday to an orderly transfer of power, who knows what pardons he might grant, what orders he might issue as commander in chief and what other desperate measures he might take before Jan. 20?” the editorial said.
Democratic leaders in Congress indicated earlier Thursday that if Trump is not removed via the 25th Amendment immediately, they are prepared to move forward with impeachment.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/usa-today-remove-trump-25th-amendment_n_5ff78006c5b6214c5518c6f1
In Pakistan everything has become expensive but people’s blood is cheaper, Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari
The PPP Chairman said that there has been a lot of injustice with the Hazara community, of which more than two thousand people have been martyred, but not a single one has received justice. “How is it fair that you are a laborer, a student, or a traveler, then you are killed by looking at your identity card,” he said.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that he appealed to the state to give justice to the most patriotic people of the country. “I am not demanding justice for Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto or Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. I demand justice for the poor workers.
The PPP Chairman said that the state had promised that the National Action Plan (NAP) would be implemented, adding that the state had promised to the children of APS that terrorism would be completely eradicated from the country. “But sadly, the backbone of terrorism has not yet been broken. We don’t want to hear that this is a foreign conspiracy and it is behind it. If such foreign conspiracy succeeds, it is your failure,” he added. “Unless the state assures the citizens that their lives are safe, the security of the country and the federation will remain in jeopardy,” he warned.
Former Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, PPP Balochistan leaders Ali Maddad Jattak, Iqbal Shah and others accompanied the Party Chairman.
https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/statement/24277/
Wednesday, January 6, 2021
Tuesday, January 5, 2021
Trump is trying to thwart democracy itself. But the problem is deeper than one man
David Daley
Republicans have carefully cultivated rot in the voting system. It didn’t start with Trump and it won’t end after he leaves.D
emocracy rots slowly. Sometimes its decay is perfectly legal, helped along by legislatures and embraced by the courts. It happens when elected officials deliberately tilt the game to their own advantage.
Republicans drew themselves similarly friendly maps for Congress and state legislatures in Texas, Ohio and Florida. Then these gerrymandered legislatures – with the blessing of a US supreme court that has gutted the 1965 Voting Rights Act – have tried to make it harder for Democrats and minorities to cast their ballots, by using surgically targeted voter ID bills, shuttering voting precincts, or eliminating days of early voting.Then, when large majorities of citizens, from both parties, come together to make voting fairer for everyone, these legislatures often run right over them. When Floridians, for example, overwhelmingly voted to restore voting rights to former felons in a 2018 constitutional amendment backed by almost two-thirds of voters, it was hailed as the largest expansion of the franchise since the passage of the voting rights act. An estimated 1.4 million citizens who served their time won back their voice in civic affairs. In any functioning representative democracy, that resounding vote should have been the last word. However, this is Florida where, in 2011, Republicans ignored a state constitutional amendment that banned partisan gerrymandering and locked themselves into such advantageous districts that the will of the people hardly matters at all. And so the Florida legislature not only replaced the voters’ judgement with its own, but turned the amendment on its head. If voters sought to end restrictions designed after the civil war to limit black voting power, the legislature substituted another reminder of those days: a poll tax. Republican legislators insisted that formerly incarcerated people pay all fines and fees related to their sentence – often amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars – before reinfranchisement. As suppressors of the vote well know, poll taxes are extraordinarily effective. Last fall, ProPublica, the Miami Herald and the Tampa Bay Times cross-referenced the voting rolls with a list of those released from prison over the past 23 years, and found just over 31,000 of those 1.4 million former inmates had been able to register to vote. Trump carried this perennial swing state by just 370,000 votes. This is the time bomb that threatens American democracy. The threat only grows more urgent. Republicans’ gerrymandering strategy, known as Redmap, was executed in 2010. The supreme court undid the voting rights act in the Shelby county case in 2013. These efforts came long before Trump descended a Trump Tower escalator and announced his campaign. They may even grow more virulent after Trump leaves, as 2024 presidential hopefuls such as Josh Hawley, the senator from Missouri, decide that doubling down on “fraud” claims is the best path to claiming the Trump vote, and as red state legislatures use those false fraud assertions to justify new voting restrictions. These efforts are already underway. In Pennsylvania, the new legislature hasn’t even been sworn in yet – but lawmakers are already seeking co-sponsors for a restrictive new voter ID bill, as well as a repeal of no-excuse absentee voting that was expanded due to Covid-19. And that’s not the only chicanery. In 2018, the Pennsylvania state supreme court struck down a congressional map so gerrymandered that Republicans consistently won 13 of the state’s 18 US House seats even when they won fewer statewide votes. Now, on the verge of the next redistricting cycle, Republicans’ gerrymandered state legislative majorities are looking to take revenge – by gerrymandering the courts, essentially creating judicial districts that can then be gerrymandered by the already gerrymandered legislature. Minority rule begets more minority rule. Texas, already one of the most restrictive states in the nation for voting, is readying a raft of new measures. In Georgia, Republican senators have indicated their support for an end to drop boxes as well as no-excuse absentee voting. A movement is also underway to require voter ID for mail-in voting. Many Republicans, meanwhile, frustrated that Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, has stood up for the integrity of Biden’s win of the state, have sought to make his position one appointed by the legislature rather than elected by the people. The practice of state legislatures ignoring the will of their own voters is not limited to Florida. Several states worked to make it harder for voters to reform their government via direct democracy. Others brazenly undid the citizens’ efforts and ignored their will. In Missouri, where more than 60% of voters voted for an independent redistricting amendment, Republican lawmakers pushed, and won, a 2020 amendment that masqueraded as campaign finance reform but actually unwound the redistricting effort. Utah’s Republican legislature also worked to undermine an advisory commission that voters enacted in that conservative state in 2018. The conservative political establishments in Arkansas and North Dakota used the courts to knock qualified initiatives off the 2020 ballot that would have opened up the closed primaries that make it easier for them to maintain power. Arizona’s independent redistricting commission remains, but Republicans there stacked the appellate court personnel commission, which vets applications and selects the five finalists for its nonpartisan chair. Their selections include a lobbyist and a gun store owner whose shop hosted a Trump rally and a shooting event for the president last fall. So, yes, Trump will leave the White House in less than three weeks. Democracy teetered but held. Some Republicans played important roles in making that happen, and their bravery should be noted. But Trump did not unleash this anti-democratic fever inside the Republican party. It’s worth noting that two of the other people on that brazen audio obtained by the Post were veteran Republican election lawyer Cleta Mitchell – heard teaching Republican state legislators how to gerrymander and duck legal discovery in leaked audio from a 2019 Alec conference – and Mark Meadows, the Trump chief of staff who first won office – running as a birther who would send Obama “back to Kenya” – from one of those gerrymandered congressional districts in 2012. Trump was created, in part, by the preceding years of gerrymandering and voter suppression that put the most extreme voices in control. They’re not going anywhere. They remain in power. They have not been chastened. There will be a next time. Our democracy may not be so lucky.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/05/trump-is-trying-to-thwart-democracy-itself-but-the-problem-is-deeper-than-one-man
Opinion: Can Only Republicans Legitimately Win Elections?
By Jamelle Bouie
Trump and many of the G.O.P.’s leaders seem to think so, with ominous consequences for the future.Of the many stories to tell about American politics since the end of the Cold War, one of growing significance is how the Republican Party came to believe in its singular legitimacy as a political actor. Whether it’s a hangover from the heady days of the Reagan revolution (when conservatives could claim ideological hegemony) or something downstream of America’s reactionary traditions, it’s a belief that now dominates conservative politics and has placed much of the Republican Party in opposition to republican government itself. It’s a story of escalation, from the relentless obstruction of the Gingrich era to the effort to impeach Bill Clinton to the attempt to nullify the presidency of Barack Obama and on to the struggle, however doomed, to keep Joe Biden from ever sitting in the White House as president. It also goes beyond national politics. In 2016, after a Democrat, Roy Cooper, defeated the Republican incumbent Pat McCrory for the governorship of North Carolina, the state’s Republican legislature promptly stripped the office of power and authority. Wisconsin Republicans did the same in 2018 after Tony Evers unseated Scott Walker in his bid for a third term. And Michigan Republicans took similar steps against another Democrat, Gretchen Whitmer, after her successful race for the governor’s mansion. Considered in the context of a 30-year assault on the legitimacy of Democratic leaders and Democratic constituencies (of which Republican-led voter suppression is an important part), the present attempt to disrupt and derail the certification of electoral votes is but the next step, in which Republicans say, outright, that a Democrat has no right to hold power and try to make that reality. The next Democrat to win the White House — whether it’s Biden getting re-elected or someone else winning for the first time — will almost certainly face the same flood of accusations, challenges and lawsuits, on the same false grounds of “fraud.” It’s worth emphasizing the bad faith and dishonesty on display here. At least 140 House Republicans say that they will vote against counting certain electoral votes on Wednesday. Among them are newly seated lawmakers in Georgia and Pennsylvania, two states whose votes are in contention. But the logic of their objection applies to them as well as Biden. If his state victories are potentially illegitimate, then so are theirs. Or take the charge, from Ted Cruz and 10 other Senate Republicans, that multiple key swing states changed (or even violated) their election laws in contravention of the Constitution. If it’s true for those cases, then it’s also true of Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, unilaterally expanded voting, however meagerly. And yet there’s no drive to cancel those results. The issue for Republicans is not election integrity, it’s the fact that Democratic votes count at all. That said, not every Republican has joined the president’s crusade against self-government. Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas shares the presidential ambitions of Cruz and Josh Hawley and others who want to disrupt the electoral vote count. But where they see opportunity, he sees blowback. Here he is in a statement released by his office: If Congress purported to overturn the results of the Electoral College, it would not only exceed that power, but also establish unwise precedents. First, Congress would take away the power to choose the president from the people, which would essentially end presidential elections and place that power in the hands of whichever party controls Congress. Second, Congress would imperil the Electoral College, which gives small states like Arkansas a voice in presidential elections. Democrats could achieve their longstanding goal of eliminating the Electoral College in effect by refusing to count electoral votes in the future for a Republican president-elect. So do seven of his Republican colleagues in the House, who similarly argue that this stunt will undermine the Republican Party’s ability to win presidential elections: From a purely partisan perspective, Republican presidential candidates have won the national popular vote only once in the last 32 years. They have therefore depended on the Electoral College for nearly all presidential victories in the last generation. If we perpetuate the notion that Congress may disregard certified electoral votes — based solely on its own assessment that one or more states mishandled the presidential election — we will be delegitimizing the very system that led Donald Trump to victory in 2016, and that could provide the only path to victory in 2024. But even as they stand against the effort to challenge the results, these Republicans affirm the baseless idea that there was fraud and abuse in the election. Cotton says he “shares the concerns of many Arkansans about irregularities in the presidential election,” while the House lawmakers say that they “are outraged at the significant abuses in our election system resulting from the reckless adoption of mail-in ballots and the lack of safeguards maintained to guarantee that only legitimate votes are cast and counted.” Even as they criticize an attempted power grab, they echo the idea that one side has legitimate voters and the other does not. It’s hard to say how anyone can shatter this belief in the Republican Party’s singular right to govern. The most we can do, in this moment, is rebuke the attempt to overturn the election in as strong a manner as possible. If President Trump broke the law with his phone call to Brad Raffensperger, the secretary of state of Georgia — in which he pressured Raffensperger to “find” votes on his behalf — then Trump should be pursued like any other citizen who attempted to subvert an election. He should be impeached as well, even if there’s only two weeks left in his term, and the lawmakers who support him should be censured and condemned. There’s no guarantee that all this will hurt the Republican Party at the ballot box. But I think we’re past that. The question now is whether the events of the past two months will stand as precedent, a guide for those who might emulate Trump. The door to overturning a presidential election is open. The rules — or at least a tortured, politically motivated reading of the rules — make it possible. Moreover, it is a simple reality of political systems that what can happen eventually will happen. It may not be in four years, it may not be in eight, but if the Republican Party continues along this path, it will run this play again. And there’s nothing to say it can’t work.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/05/opinion/trump-georgia-senate-elections.html
#USElections - Trump Says Pence Can Overturn His Loss in Congress. That’s Not How It Works.
By Michael S. SchmidtThe vice president plays a crucial but largely ceremonial role in formalizing the election results in Congress. Here’s how the election tally actually works. President Trump on Tuesday escalated his efforts to force Vice President Mike Pence to overturn President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory, falsely asserting that Mr. Pence had the power to unilaterally throw out electoral votes on Wednesday when Congress meets to certify the election results. But there is nothing in the Constitution or the law that explicitly gives a vice president that power, and aides close to Mr. Pence, who concede that he is facing a politically perilous moment, are convinced he will follow the normal procedures and confirm Mr. Biden’s election. Still, most agree that Wednesday promises to be a long and confusing day on Capitol Hill — and a potentially agonizing one for Mr. Pence — as Mr. Trump’s Republican allies move to challenge Mr. Biden’s victory and force at least three votes on the matter, all expected to fail. The proceeding will test what had long been considered little more than a paperwork exercise in American democracy: the official count by Congress of electoral votes. The vice president’s role is to be the master of ceremonies rather than arbiter of the outcome, declaring the winner based on who has the most electoral votes. But despite Mr. Trump’s clear loss to Mr. Biden, the president and a group of loyalist House and Senate Republicans are plotting to upend the process by objecting to the certification of several states. Lacking the votes to prevail, Mr. Trump is now pressuring Mr. Pence to take matters into his own hands to delay the vote tabulation or alter it in Mr. Trump’s favor. “The Vice President has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors,” the president tweeted on Tuesday. That’s not how it works. Pence has a basic, if unappealing, job: Count the votes. Three weeks ago, the Electoral College formally cast its votes for president, affirming Mr. Biden’s victory. But under the Constitution, there is one more step before the result is final: the certification by Congress of the electoral votes, to be conducted by the president of the Senate. That is the vice president. “The president of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted,” according to the 12th Amendment. Envelopes with the certified votes from the Electoral College are brought in two mahogany boxes to the Capitol, and the vice president presides over a joint session in which the certificates are examined to determine they are authentic, with clear instructions for declaring a winner. “The person having the greatest number of votes shall be the president,” the amendment goes on, unless there is a tie or nobody has secured a majority, in which case the House decides. The job has occasionally been unpleasant for vice presidents. In 1961, the state of Hawaii sent two slates of electors and the vice president, Richard M. Nixon, who had just lost the election to John F. Kennedy, moved to count the Democratic electors, which expanded his own margin of defeat. Forty years later, Al Gore was in a similar spot, burdened with overruling objections from his fellow Democrats and declaring the victory of George W. Bush — and his own defeat — after a drawn-out Florida recount that was ended by the Supreme Court. And in 2017, Mr. Biden, then the vice president, had to reject a Democratic challenge to Mr. Trump’s victory. But no matter how distasteful it is, J. Michael Luttig, a former judge for the United States Court of Appeals and leading conservative legal scholar, said that Mr. Pence had no choice but to simply count the votes. “No president and no vice president would — or should — consider either event as a test of political loyalty,” Mr. Luttig said. “And if either did, he would have to understand that political loyalty must yield to constitutional obligation.” Members of Congress can object, though their bids this time are expected to fail. Under the Electoral Count Act of 1887, which was passed after the contested election of 1876 in which several states sent rival sets of electors, it is up to Congress to settle any disputes about state certifications. If at least one member of the House and Senate raise an objection about a state’s results, it must be considered, immediately halting the joint session so members can return to their respective chambers and debate the challenge for up to two hours. Then a vote — decided by a simple majority — is held to determine whether to throw out that state’s results. That has not occurred since the Reconstruction Era, and with Democrats controlling the House and many Senate Republicans opposed, it will almost certainly fail. Still, Republicans plan to force at least three such votes, perhaps more. Representative Mo Brooks of Alabama has said he will move to contest the results from as many as six states; three Republican senators — Josh Hawley of Missouri, Ted Cruz of Texas and Kelly Loeffler of Georgia — plan to back at least one of those. Dozens of House members and 11 senators have said they plan to vote against certifying Mr. Biden’s victory. Given that Mr. Trump and his supporters have contested the results in several states that Mr. Biden won — including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — there could be as much as 12 hours of debate on Wednesday, and a half-dozen votes. Trump wants Pence to unilaterally disqualify votes for Biden. House Republicans, with support from Mr. Trump, have argued in court that Mr. Pence has the right to move unilaterally to eliminate electoral votes from any state that he chooses. But a federal judge appointed by Mr. Trump on Friday tossed out a lawsuit the Republicans brought to force the vice president to do so. “The only responsibility and power of the vice president under the Constitution is to faithfully count the Electoral College votes as they have been cast,” Mr. Luttig said. “The Constitution does not empower the vice president to alter in any way the votes that have been cast, either by rejecting certain votes or otherwise.” Despite no evidence of widespread voter fraud, Mr. Trump and his Republican allies in Congress have claimed that the results from battleground states that voted for Mr. Biden must be invalidated. “I hope Mike Pence comes through for us, I have to tell you,” Mr. Trump said at a rally in Georgia on Monday night for two Republican incumbents who face runoff elections on Tuesday that will determine which party controls the Senate. “Of course, if he doesn’t come through, I won’t like him as much.” If Mr. Pence were to throw out enough votes for Mr. Biden, it could prevent both candidates from reaching the threshold of 270 votes needed to secure an Electoral College victory. At that point, under the Constitution, each state’s delegation in the House would receive one vote. This could favor Mr. Trump, as 26 states have majority-Republican delegations. If Pence were to give Trump what he wants, the country would truly be in uncharted territory. Aides to Mr. Pence insist he will not do what Mr. Trump is asking. But congressional Democrats and Mr. Biden’s transition team are taking no chances and are preparing for a range of outcomes, including possible legal action, if Mr. Pence goes off script. The problem, Democrats concede, is that there is little precedent because no vice president has ever tried to use his position to overturn an election. The law in this area is untested and has never been litigated in court. But legal experts said the fallout could be highly damaging to the country. “The prospect of the vice president and members of Congress trying to overturn the will of the people rather than duly counting governor-certified votes would be unconstitutional and calamitous,” said a longtime Washington lawyer, Alan Raul, adding that it would set an “exceptionally dangerous precedent.” “If the sedition caucus in the House and Senate goes forward with their utterly unprecedented attack on the 2020 election, abetted by the vice president, it would torque our democracy for years to come,” he said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/05/us/politics/pence-trump-election.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage
#HappyBirthdaySZAB - Zulfikar Ali Bhutto!!!! - (January 5, 1928-April 4, 1979)
By M Waqar
January 5, we celebrate birthday of Z A Bhutto, a leader, politician, revolutionary, who after his execution in Pakistan on April 4, 1979, still lives on in the hearts and minds of millions of Pakistanis, and the party that he founded still possesses the largest permanent voting bank in Pakistan.
The possibility of the secular, democratic Pakistan that he had in mind, like Pakistan 's founder, Jinnah has earned ZAB the title of Quaid-i-Awam . Z. A. Bhutto has still more charisma than any politician in Pakistan. Mr Bhutto was inducted into office as the President of Pakistan in 1971 and was removed in 1977, both events took place around midnight; one in the wake of a war and the other in the shadow of a civil war. In between he gave the country what even his sympathizers and admirers would concede was a 'strong' government, he mobilized his country's first mass-based political party around a socialist ideology and highly independent foreign policy. Pakistan's modernizer Zulfikar Ali Bhutto left deep footprints in the sands of history.
To his lasting credit remains the 1973 Constitution of the country, the Shimla Accord of 1972 which brought the longest peace between India and Pakistan, the social reforms to build an egalitarian society, the non-aligned foreign policy, the nuclear programme and the building of the social, economic and military infrastructure of the country. He was a thinker, author and orator. He was deliberate, discreet, and competent; honest, upright and keeper of his covenants. He was a friend of the poor, downtrodden and oppressed. Fearless in his beliefs he refused to bow before any man or power other than the Almighty. His courage was such that he preferred to face death for his beliefs and embraced martyrdom. He had profound faith in freedom and the liberation of humanity. Under his government, Pakistan gave overt and covert support to the African nations than under apartheid and minority rule. He rejected fanaticism. He gave pride to the poor.
He was able to do this because the people of the country from Khyber to the shores of the Arabian sea in Karachi loved him and supported him. Bhutto brought back 90,000 prisoners of war, prevented their war crime trials and also restored the territory lost on the battlefield. As leader of the Third World he spoke boldly against racism, colonialism and imperialism. He fearlessly defended the right of nations to independence. When the 1973 Ramazan war broke out, he sent Pakistan's military to defend the borders of the Muslim countries, including the Golan Heights of Syria. ZAB's short life of 50 years was spent in the service of many international, regional and national causes. The most important and the most enduring legacy of the Quaid-i-Awam was raising the consciousness of the people for democracy. He awakened the masses, making them realise they were the legitimate fountainhead of political power. He enlightened the farmer, the industrial worker, the student, the woman and the rest of the common people of their importance and of their right of franchise, which is the definite means of bringing changes for the betterment of the lives of the common people. Z. A. Bhutto's rule brought a transformation of Pakistan's rules of the game, a new populist style of governance, a new governmentality, he favoured a much more active role of the state in relation to society, he reshaped the economic and political landscape of Pakistan. He reached out to masses, aroused their feelings and disciplined their minds. The role of Bhutto family in the uplifting of the poor is unforgettable.
The last chapter of his life is a glorious example of martyrdom for the cause of resurrection of democracy. At the time of his overthrow, Bhutto was emerging as a spokesman of the World of Islam and the leader of the Third World. The age of Bhutto was an Age of Revolution, he was the architect of the China Policy, Pakistan Steel Mill, Agriculture Reforms. Although his life and career were cruelly terminated, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto will forever shine in history as one of the Great leaders who took part in the liberation of the Third World from the yoke of Imperialism and Neo Colonialism during the Twentieth Century. He could have easily entered into a deal, as others did, at the cost of principles, to save his life and move out. How cruel it strikes to bring down such a sincere leader like Bhutto with rare caliber, competence and integrity, Bhutto never colluded with generals, he confronted them. Mr. Bhutto remains a memorable figure . He commanded the allegiance of millions of people inside Pakistan, across the Muslim world and in the Third World as a hero of the people. His leadership gave pride to his followers, to his Nation and to oppressed people everywhere. He conquered the hearts of a Nation through supreme qualities of leadership, vision, intellectual breadth, charisma, dauntlessness, bravery, boldness and a programme for political redemption of an exploited people, he built the foundations of education and industrialization in the country. He liberated the small farmers and peasants from the repression and cruelty of big landlords and banished the jagirdari and sardari system declaring that all citizens are born equal and must live with equal rights. The Taliban, the terrorist groups and the new war against terror are the direct result of the overthrow of the modernizing government of Z. A. Bhutto and its replacement by a clique of military officers that cynically used the name of religion to promote their own illegal stay in power.
Quaid e Awam was murdered but his memory lives on in the monuments he built. It lives on in his ideas. And it lives on in the hearts of all men and women who believe that humanity can only progress when there is tolerance, freedom, dignity and equal opportunity for all. Pakistan survived due to the leadership of a bold and courageous leader, a people's leader, who had the vision to break the shackles of poverty to emancipate his people and lead them into a new decade of glory, strength and achievement. Quaid e Awam built the most modern schools, colleges, universities, professional colleges, vocational training institutes, including Quaid-e-Azam University, Allama Iqbal Open University, Chandka Medical College and many others. He built hospitals to take care of the sick and poor. He opened the way for the middle classes to develop and prosper in the fields of medicine, engineering , law and other specialist studies. He introduced peaceful nuclear energy to help treat cancer setting up the first cancer treating institutes in the four provinces of Pakistan. He built roads in the tribal areas and the Northern areas knowing how poor and oppressed people in the distant areas of Pakistan were. Internationally, using his experience as Foreign Minister, he hosted the Islamic Summit Conference in Lahore. It was at this conference that the Palestinian Liberation Organization was recognized as the authentic voice of the Muslims. He advocated closer relations with the Muslim countries arguing for a common economic bloc with banking and other financial institutions long before regional blocs became identified as the economic way forward. Bhutto pushed politics out of the posh drawing rooms into real Pakistan - into the muddy lanes and villages of the poor. Bhutto's inspiring leadership filled Pakistanis with hope, energy and strength.
Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, knew that there can be no sacrifice greater than the sacrifice for the people whose respect, honour and dignity is the respect and dignity of the Nation. Quaid e Awam made the people proud of themselves and of their Nation. The 20th century has seen many great leaders, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is one of them. Due to his glorious achievements, Mr. Bhutto rules the hearts of the Pakistani people from his grave. He was not only the leader of Pakistan, he was the leader of an Islamic world, the leader of Third World. He will forever be remembered by his countrymen as Quaid-e-Awam. As his followers say, "Zinda Hai Bhutto, Zinda Hai"--Bhutto lives, he lives. Indeed he does, in the hearts of all those who dream of a better tomorrow.
Long Live Bhuttoism….
Z A Bhutto is the first person in Pakistan who has given voice to the common people. Z. A. Bhutto remains alive in hearts of millions of Pakistanis. It was a miracle that in less than half a decade a defeated nation had become a significant entity in the comity of nations. Pakistan had friends all around the globe from Africa to the far corner of Asia and from Europe to South America. We were regarded as a nation which had proved itself. Pakistani manpower was exported in the Middle East and the statesmanship of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had started bearing fruit. Under Z A Bhutto's rule, a new vision of Pakistan was born. Within a few years of the defeat in 1971, Pakistan began to see itself not as some beleaguered non-entity in South Asia, as the Indian establishment was prone to see it, but as a strategically located middle-sized power straddling the two worlds of South and West Asia, uniquely poised to take advantage of a host of geopolitical possibilities and enjoying widespread support among the Islamic states. He is one of the few Pakistani leaders that energized the nation and gave it a sense of optimism. Z A Bhutto, saw the future of Pakistan.
Like Jinnah he outwitted Indira Gandhi at Shimla and formed alliances with various world leaders, from Sadaat, to Boumediene to Qaddafi to Faisal. Pakistan survives today because of those alliances that enabled him to build the Nuclear bomb. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto understood the geo-political realities of the region. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto has earned a place in the pantheon of leaders from the Third World who earned everlasting fame in the struggle against colonialism and imperialism. He had the privilege of interacting with many of those leaders who played a great role in the epic struggle for national independence in the 20th century, including Mao Tse Tung, Ahmed Soekarno, Chou-en Lai, Gamal Abdel Nasser and Salvador Allende. During the period between the end of the Second World War and the end of the Cold War, the world was divided into two blocs: The Capitalist West and the Socialist East. All these leaders aspired to aspects of a socialist pattern of economy. Bhutto shared their faith in a leading role for the public sector as an instrument of self-reliance. Bhutto's foundation of the PPP was a setback for the reactionary forces in a country long dominated by the Right. The slogan of "Food, Shelter and Clothing" shifted the focus of Pakistan politics from theological to economic issues. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had the courage of his conviction to decide to lay down his life rather than compromise or seek appeasement.
There was a sense of purpose and direction in the country in pursuit of peace and prosperity. The economic growth rate increased and money poured in from expatriates who got the universal right to passport. The Muslim countries donated roughly $500 million annually to Pakistan, freeing it of international financial institutions. The people got jobs and opportunities. Women of the country were emancipated entering the police force, Foreign, Civil Service and subordinate judiciary for the first time in the country's history. There is a story that the American President John F. Kennedy was much impressed with the then Foreign Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. When they met, Kennedy walked with him in the Rose Garden and said, "Bhutto, if you were an American, you would be in my Cabinet". To which Zulfikar Ali Bhutto smilingly replied, "No, Mr. President. If I were an American, you would be in my cabinet". Z A Bhutto, was highly skilled negotiator and an international statesman, he secured the agreement between USSR and Pakistan, he signed an agreement with China on demarcation of the Sino-Pak boundary. When he became President, Pakistan had innumerable problems, but he was not a man to be cowed down by knotty problems, he was in fact, a dynamo of inexhaustible and boundless creative energy, he was born to solve problems , he had to tackle the problems of shattered country by a methodical system of fixing priorities. Bhutto the adroit politician and statesman tackled the difficult problems of his country one by one with devotion, determination and patriotic zeal and solved them successfully. Since his assumption of power this great man of vision and destiny, equipped with resolute will, extraordinary intelligence and seething patriotic zeal fought successfully against the landlords, capitalists, industrialists, religious fanatics, corrupt bureaucrats, saboteurs, foreign intriguers and spies, he stood like a rock against all odds and achieved national unity, he worked hard for the emancipation of the exploited working class and illiterate masses. His cruel and barbaric murder by military despots caused revulsion across the globe, Z A Bhutto dedicated his life to remove the sorrows from the hearts of the poor and the oppressed, to remove the tears from the children of his poor nation. He lived consciously to make history and to leave a legacy in the form of the development of his nation, his fight was a fight against the policies of IMF, which serve to perpetuate the backwardness of the developing nations.
Bhutto is rightfully credited with saving Pakistan at this dark moment in its history, as French President Giscard d'Estaing said, "he was the man who incarnated Pakistan at a dramatic hour of its history. Tolstoy in the last volume of his War and Peace expressed that history is a movement of ideas in which political leaders play a minor role. Sometimes the movement of ideas is indeed rapid. Yet, at times, the movement of ideas is slower than the melting of the glaciers. The movement of ideas is facilitated in a vibrant political and democratic culture, which gives room for dissent and disagreement. In dictatorial societies, history remains static in a cold freeze. And so it was in Pakistan before Quaid-i-Awam. He was the one who converted that static and decayed dictatorial polity into a vibrant and dynamic democratic society; the cost of which he paid with his own life. He who gave his blood, and the blood of his sons and daughter,
Long Live Bhuttoism….
Monday, January 4, 2021
Trump’s Call Leaves Allies Fearful for American Democracy
By Steven Erlanger
Many now take the president’s disregard for democratic and ethical norms for granted, but also fear its effect on America’s standing in the world.
President Trump’s extraordinary, wheedling telephone call to state officials in Georgia seeking to overturn the election results there has shaken many Europeans — not so much for what it reveals about Mr. Trump himself, but for what it may portend for the health of American democracy.
With just 16 days left in his presidency, Mr. Trump’s capacity to shock the world with his epic self-centeredness and disregard for democratic and ethical norms is vanishing. The president has revealed himself many times before this latest episode, when he badgered and threatened Georgia officials to “find” him the votes needed to flip the state.
But if Mr. Trump has not moved on, the world has. Foreign leaders are looking forward, even as many worry that the Trump effect will last for years, damaging trust in American predictability and reliability.
“A lot of people will just roll their eyes and wait for the clock to run down,” said Leslie Vinjamuri, director of the U.S. and Americas program at Chatham House, the British research institution. “But by far the most troubling thing is the number of Republicans who are willing to go along with him, and what it’s doing to the Republican Party, playing out in real time.”
A group of House Republicans has vowed to challenge Joseph R. Biden’s Electoral College win on Wednesday when Congress meets to certify it, and at least a dozen Republican senators are expected to join them, forcing a vote though it is all but certain to fail.
With Mr. Trump continuing to have such a hold over the party and winning more than 74 million votes in November, Ms. Vinjamuri said, “It shows us that it will be incredibly difficult to govern the country in the next year or so.”
If so many Americans feel that the election was fraudulent, “it looks like America can’t even secure the most fundamental norms of democracy, the peaceful transfer of power, when losers have to accept that they lost,” she said.
Indeed to distant observers, the corrosive effects of Mr. Trump’s presidency are not isolated to Mr. Trump himself but extend far beyond the president — to the deep coterie of enablers around him, in the White House and his party, and even to an American public where significant numbers themselves believe that their democracy has been compromised and cannot be trusted.
The dangers that entail for foreign allies are manifold and will not be easily dispelled even with a new president. But they are raising special concerns before Mr. Trump exits.Foreign leaders are looking forward, but many worry that the Trump effect will last for years, damaging trust in American predictability and reliability.
President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. speaking in Wilmington, Del., last week. Foreign leaders are looking forward, but many worry that the Trump effect will last for years, damaging trust in American predictability and reliability.Credit...Amr Alfiky/The New York Times
Patrick Chevallereau, a former French military officer now at RUSI, a defense research institution in London, said that the Trump call “shows that the current president is in a mind-set to do anything — absolutely anything — before Jan. 20. There is zero standard, zero reference, zero ethics.” He added: “Everything else than himself can be destroyed and collapse, including us.”
Thomas Wright, an Irish-born expert on America at the Brookings Institution, said that “People are worried for real that Trump will come back.” The months since the election have shown people “just how bad a second term would have been — the guardrails off, a completely personalized government and giving voice to his authoritarian tendencies,” he said.
“Now the rest of the world understands that Trump could actually make a comeback in 2024, so that is a shadow that he will cast over American politics,” Mr. Wright said.
World leaders “all know that Trump is sort of crazy, but it’s the extremity of his actions, the lengths to which he has gone, that he got 74 million votes and is not retiring but will be a force for the Republicans” that is disconcerting, he added. “People knew what Trump is like, but the importance is the shadow of the future.”
Also troubling to many is the letter that the last 10 living secretaries of defense all signed urging the nation — and the military — to accept that the election is over and “the time for questioning the results has passed.”
Jean-Marie Guéhenno, a former French and United Nations diplomat who is president of the International Crisis Group, asked on Twitter: “Should we be reassured on U.S. democracy when 10 former defense secretaries warn against use of the military to dispute election results, or terrified that they believe taking a public stance has become necessary?”
The current acting secretary of defense, Christopher C. Miller, has not cooperated fully with the transition team of Mr. Biden Jr., while Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn, whom Mr. Trump recently pardoned, has called for martial law and had a meeting at the White House, and that has clearly caused concern.
“It’s the things we don’t know that are scary,” Ms. Vinjamuri said. “We don’t know who else in the Pentagon is not cooperating, and it’s worrisome that these former secretaries clearly felt they had to issue a warning to people in the Pentagon that they need to uphold their oath to the Constitution.”
François Heisbourg, a French security analyst, jokingly asked, “How many wars can you start in 16 days?” But he, too, was struck by the autocratic tone of the Trump call and the hold Mr. Trump continues to have on so many key members of the Republican Party.
If the Senate runoffs in Georgia produce Republican victories on Tuesday “despite this impeachable phone call,” Mr. Heisbourg said, “the international reaction will be that the Republicans are not going to divorce Trumpism — after all, while Trump lost, they didn’t lose the legislative elections but did better than two years ago. Trump’s ability to get a grip on the party and keep it to the end is what is stunning and what scares people outside,” he said.
For others, Mr. Trump’s behavior is by now taken for granted, but so are its debilitating effects on America’s democracy and its standing in the world.
Laurence Nardon, head of the North America program at the French Institute of International Relations in Paris, said that the Trump call was “more of the same,” so not especially shocking. “American soft power, as a model of democracy, is damaged by Trump’s actions,” she said. “But I think we have understood that his practice of power is an exception, even if his election is not an accident.”
Robin Niblett, director of Chatham House, said that in general, “Europeans are no longer surprised by anything Trump does, but more disbelief that someone like Trump was ever president.”
There is confidence in the American system, Mr. Niblett said. “But what is more worrying is how many significant Republican players believe that it will do them good to play to this gallery, this scorched-earth, fake, disinformation politics, in which you raise doubts in people’s minds about your own democracy and than use those doubts politically.”
The big risk, he said, is that even if the American system can turn aside authoritarianism, “there could be a really brutal dynamic that makes it hard for America to be the partner people overseas need and hope for.”
After this phone call, Germans are holding their breath about what Mr. Trump might do next, said Jana Puglierin, director of the Berlin office of the European Council on Foreign Relations. “News like this confirms everything that Germans have been hearing in the media for the past four years,” she said.
The letter of the former defense secretaries was also an eye-opener in Berlin. “They realized this is serious,” Ms. Puglierin said. “That they see a reason to write such a letter is shocking.”
Sophia Gaston, director of the British Foreign Policy Group, a research institution, said that “President Trump’s desperate efforts to interfere with the election results and subvert America’s democracy are now almost universally regarded in Westminster as a pitiful last howl at the moon.”
More optimistically, she said: “What is clear is that the tremendous impact that Trump’s administration has had on America’s standing in the world is coming to an end. There are high hopes for Biden to restore America’s moral mission, and the focus in Britain is entirely on looking forward, identifying areas of alignment and common interest with the new Biden administration.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/04/world/europe/brad-raffensperger-trump-call.html
Opinion: Why Congress Should Impeach Trump Again
The emergence of an audio recording of President Trump pressuring the Georgia secretary of state to overturn the results of the election is a harrowing moment in the history of our democracy. And though the number of his days in office is dwindling, the only appropriate response is to impeach Mr. Trump. Again. Whether he acknowledges it or not, President Trump is leaving the White House on Jan. 20 — but right now, there is nothing stopping him from running in 2024. That is a terrifying prospect, because the way he has conducted himself over the past two months, wielding the power of the presidency to try to steal another term in office, has threatened one of our republic’s most essential traditions: the peaceful transfer of power. Fortunately, our founders anticipated we would face a moment like this, which is one reason Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution entrusts Congress with the power not only to remove a president but also to prevent him or her from ever holding elected office again. Mr. Trump’s conduct over the past two months has left our legislators with no choice but to use it. That impeachment inquiry would take time, far more than Mr. Trump has left in office. But it would be well worth it. Since the election was called in favor of President-elect Joe Biden, Mr. Trump has been relentlessly fomenting doubts about its legitimacy — even as many federal and state courts, including ones whose judges were appointed by Mr. Trump himself, have ruled against his claims. He has reportedly inquired about the idea of enlisting the help of the military to keep him in power. Most recently, on the phone with Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, he said, “I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have.” He added: “We won this state,” even though he didn’t. In a democracy, you don’t find votes. You count them. Most strikingly, Mr. Trump threatened the Georgia officials with criminal prosecution if they didn’t comply, saying leaving the vote counts intact would be a “big risk.” This kind of threat may sound familiar, because an eerily similar abuse of power led to Mr. Trump’s impeachment just over a year ago. Senator Susan Collins of Maine explained her vote to acquit him by saying she thought he had learned “a pretty big lesson.” Clearly, Mr. Trump learned a different lesson — that he was above the law. It’s just as William Davie from North Carolina, discussing the position of the presidency at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, predicted: A president who viewed himself to be unimpeachable, he said in 1787, would “spare no efforts or means whatever to get himself re-elected.” It’s time for Congress, once and for all, to put an end to this. No one wants to put the country through the turmoil of another impeachment. But we also can’t afford to look the other way — for several reasons. For one, we must establish a precedent that a president who tries to cheat his way to re-election will be held accountable. Sure, this attempt may not have succeeded, but a failed coup should itself be alarming enough. And who is to say there won’t be a closer election in the future, with a more competent authoritarian candidate — whose party also has control of the House of Representatives? We need to make sure that Congress has ensured that candidates cannot strong-arm their way into re-election. We also need to set a precedent that a lame duck president can still be held accountable. If an incumbent, say, threatened to nuke Iran unless the Electoral College sided with him, we would want to have a mechanism by which we could remove him from office. In our Constitution, impeachment is that mechanism, but it is worthless if we never use it. And last, we cannot risk Mr. Trump’s becoming president again — or for that matter, even running again with a chance of winning. This isn’t a point about ideology; it’s a reflection of the fact that our system may not be able to withstand this lawless man returning to the highest office in the land. Emboldened by our failure to hold him accountable for abusing his power in his first term, who knows what he would do in a nonconsecutive second term? The damage to our institutions from his first four years in office will take generations to undo. Our democracy might not be able to handle another four.Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, was able to protect Mr. Trump the last time — no doubt because he was afraid of what a truly rigorous trial might show. But he may no longer be able to do so. For one thing, Mr. Trump will soon lack the power of the presidency to dole out favors and punish his enemies. For another, the Senate composition will be different. Already, Democrats have flipped seats in Arizona and Colorado. Republicans who voted to acquit him, like Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, have shown signs they are finally willing to stand up to him. And Georgians will go to the polls to decide who will represent them in the Senate. Mr. Trump’s preferred senators, Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, would no doubt try to block an inquiry into his misdeeds. But if these senators lose their seats, a full and robust inquiry in the Senate could be the result, with Chuck Schumer as majority leader. In 2008, a young member of the Judiciary Committee said, “The business of high crimes and misdemeanors goes to the question of whether or not the person serving as president of the United States put their own interests, their personal interests, ahead of public service.” That congressman’s name was Mike Pence — and he was exactly right. We need to convict President Trump and make sure he can never call the White House home again. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/04/opinion/trump-georgia-impeach.htmlAnd this time, he should be convicted. The country cannot risk his becoming president again.
#Pakistan #PPP - Zulfikar Ali Bhutto stands as the tallest icon and pioneer of struggle for democracy and equal rights in the country
Former Prime Minister Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto stands as the tallest icon and pioneer of struggle for democracy and equal rights in the country, said Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari paying a glowing tribute.In his message on the eve of 93rd birthday anniversary of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the PPP Chairman said that Shaheed Bhutto picked up the shattered pieces of Pakistan following Dhakka fall and inspired a politically demoralised population by rejuvenating the dream of the founders of the nation. “Through his political wisdom and sagacity, Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto not only had 90,000 Prisoners of War (PoWs) freed and thousands of square kilometers occupied by the enemy vacated, he also laid foundations of nuclear power to safeguard the country from repetition of such debacles in future,” he added.Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that no patriotic Pakistani can forget the plans and efforts to strengthen the economy of the country launching macro and micro level industrialisations, education institutions, a unanimous Constitution, lifting up the poor and political empowerment of every segment of the society. “What he did in a half century life for the country is unmatched in the post-Quaid-e-Azam Pakistan for which he was murdered through judiciary by the enemies of the country and its democratic order,” he added. He reiterated that PPP would follow the foot-steps of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and carry forward their struggle till their mission if achieved despite threats, hurdles, victimisations and highhandedness by the remnants of Dictator Zia and their henchmen.
https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/24254/
#HappyBirthdaySZAB #Pakistan #PPP - The vision of Z A Bhutto
By Senator Rehman Malik
This day of April 4 reminds us of the judicial murder of a great charismatic public leader Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in 1979 – a day that was actually the death of humanity. He ruled the hearts of the people as he gave a voice to poor masses.
History will neither forgive nor forget the murder of a leader who wanted to make us progressive and peaceful, to take us towards national integrity and prosperity by empowering the masses, and by making Pakistan the first Muslim nuclear power in the world. He feared that Pakistan would be exposed to external danger by neighbouring India and therefore announced, “We (Pakistan) will eat grass, even go hungry, but we will get one of our own (nuclear bomb), we have no other choice.”
Bhutto refused to succumb to international pressure to roll back Pakistan’s nuclear programme. Gerald Feuerstein, who was a witness to the meeting between Prime Minister Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in Lahore in August 1976, admitted in an interview that Bhutto rejected the warning to roll back or compromise Pakistan’s nuclear programme.
Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was a distinguished leader in the history of Pakistan who imparted the lesson of peace and humanity to the rest of the world.
Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto hurt for his people, country and the Muslim Ummah, and he made history by bringing the Ummah on one platform during the Islamic Summit Conference in Lahore in 1974. He was not only a distinguished national leader but also an unparalleled statesman who revived a broken nation after the disaster of the fall of Dhaka by bringing back 90,000 prisoners of war. The public must know that the enemies of Pakistan decided to eliminate him after he refused the rollback of the nuclear programme despite numerous pressures and threats of making him a “horrible example”.
CIA hatched a plan to block communism, using Islam through General Zia-ul-Haq. He preached his own brand of Islam wherein he promoted extremists, terrorists and all kind of criminals under the name of Jehadis. These extremists and criminal elements were brought and nourished by US in Pakistan for launching them in Afghanistan to operate.
I got an invitation for an official function at the Army House once, but it was this black day in the history of Pakistan, as on this day, the Chief Justice of Pakistan upheld the death sentence of Bhutto. He received many greetings and commendations for his judgment. General Zia-ul-Haq, standing next to the Chief Justice was also receiving greetings from his own created politicians and senior colleagues. They were essentially celebrating the death of a charismatic leader who dreamt of Pakistan leading the world.
They killed and buried Bhutto mysteriously but hid his brave daughter. Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, the first woman Prime Minister of the Muslim world, signified the political rebirth of her father Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s legacy. She suffered the most in the hands of Zia-ul-Haq and his remnants but eventually she witnessed the crashing of C-130B Hercules aircraft where even remains of the body of Zia-ul-Haq could not be found. The wrath of Allah Almighty also fell on Justice Moulvi Mushtaq who had awarded death sentence to Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto as well.
As Director FIA, I took it upon myself to look into old files of the judicial murder of Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, where I found some tampered documents. I will soon write a book detailing the conspiracy behind Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s ‘judicial murder’, which was carried out through a premeditated plan. General Zia-ul-Haq’s government changed the documents but the entire world declared it a ‘judicial murder’. I appreciate the honesty of the then Director Law of FIA who had clearly stated the shells of the bullets were replaced, witnesses were tampered, and Masood Mahmood was tutored under duress.
General Zia-ul-Haq tried to eliminate Bhuttoism by killing Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto but he still rules the hearts of the people while Zia-ul-Haq was seen as a disgrace in the world. We know almost all those Muslim leaders who participated in the Second Islamic Summit Conference held from February 22-24, 1974 in Lahore died unnatural deaths. Undoubtedly, the killing of all these Muslim leaders cannot be a coincidence but an operation to punish them and to give a message to the Muslim world.
In my humble capacity, I will soon expose those facts which are buried in files from those who are mum. Us PPP workers and President Asif Ali Zardari, filed a reference to Supreme Court but the then Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry did not take it up. I, therefore, appeal to the present Chief Justice to take up this case to vindicate the position of Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.
Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was a distinguished leader in the history of Pakistan who imparted the lesson of peace and humanity to the rest of the world. He gave voice to the poor and oppressed people of Pakistan and empowered them to stand for their rights. I had the honour to work with three Bhuttos, first with Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, and thereafter Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto – my leader, mentor and sister – followed by Asif Ali Zardari and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari – the only hope for Pakistan’s future. I feel proud to have personal and political association with the Bhutto and Zardari families. Like Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto who carried on Bhutto’s legacy more powerfully and bravely, I find the same bravery, wisdom, vision and far-sightedness in Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.
Bhutto’s ideology was popular throughout the world and he could have saved his life if had compromised with a dictator, which was an impossible notion for a leader of the people. Today, Pakistan is secure only due to Bhutto’s vision. The future belongs to PPP leader Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, as he is the only one who truly has the guts to fill Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s boots. Bilawal is the future Prime Minister of Pakistan InshaAllah, and the people can see a Bhutto among themselves once again.
Pakistanis see a ray of hope in Chairman Bilawal Bhutto to pull the nation out of crisis. He is rightly following in the footprints of Z A Bhutto and SMBB and we will soon witness him be successful in his mission.
https://nation.com.pk/04-Apr-2020/the-vision-of-z-a-bhutto
OP-ED: #HappyBirthdaySZAB #Pakistan #PPP - I wish Shaheed Bhutto were alive today
Manufacturers have ensured its cost to be accessible to the reach the pockets of the most poor. According to experts Oxford’s vaccine can be stored at fridge temperature, Moderna requires storage at -20o C; Pfizer at an Arctic -78o C. The comparative cost of the doses is debatable. According to a report estimated cost is $39 for two doses for the Pfizer vaccine, $50 for two doses of Moderna, and a low $3 a dose for the Oxford. The Oxford loaves-and-fishes miracle might be made possible through Covax, a global initiative that hopes to distribute about 2bn doses to 92 low- and middle-income countries at a maximum cost of $3 a dose. On the other hand, what was once an iron curtain, Putin’s Russia has developed its own Gam-COVID-Vac (Sputnik-V) vaccine. As against oft repeated promises of providing vaccine to its poor people free of cost, Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered a massive ‘voluntary’ free vaccination programme against COVID-19. It is another thing that the Russians are finding it hard to have volunteers for its massive vaccination programme. It faces much similar opposition from its clergy as we in Pakistan have been facing in the execution of polio immunisation programme.
Despite the fact that the masses appreciated Generic Scheme as a major healthcare reform, it became a sordid victim of the conspiracy by the international pharmaceutical conglomerate and greedy Pakistani bureaucracy
As compared to others our Chinese friends have been pursuing a parallel programme. China has been concentrating on two state-sponsored vaccines – Sinovac and Sinopharm. Although they have not been tested to the nth degree, these Chinese vaccines, like Covid-19 itself, have been exported already to other countries, hopefully with less lethal consequences. In Pakistan Imran Khan’s approach is much more quixotic. On the other hand PDM being a larger mulla created platform is busy what is at best be described as bullshitting distractions. While the PTI government under IK is busy bemoaning financial bankruptcy having no money for its dilapidated medicare – with greater emphasis on Covid-19 prevention rather than its cure. Having established his own ShaukatKhanum Memorial Cancer Hospital IK seems to have accomplished his life longambition, while leaving rest of healthcare to privatised social distancing, leaving it to the masses to self-restraint while allowing free for all in larger social gatherings such as weddings etc.
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