Co-Chairman of Pakistan People’s Party and former President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari has turned 68 years old. His politics will be remembered as a separate era in the history of Pakistan just like the founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan People’s party, ShaheedZulfiqar Ali Bhutto and the first female Prime Minister of the Islamic world, Ms. Benazir Bhutto, have different political positions. He is a political pedagogue in his own right and currently has a prominentplace among the major world leaders.He is from a political family. His father Hakim Ali Zardari himself was a great leader. He had great respect in the progressive national and people’s democratic circles of the country.His approach towards the politics of Pakistan was always correct. During the time of General ZiaulHaq, when the reactionary and extremist forces were being nurtured, Hakim Ali Zardari gathered the progressive and democratic thinking political forces on one platform.
Asif Ali Zardari inherited the people-friendly and progressive democratic thought. After the martyrdom of Ms. Benazir Bhutto, when the entire responsibility of saving Pakistan, democracy and politics fell on the shoulders of Asif Ali Zardari, he used his political tact and his wisdom to fulfill the responsibility in such a way that today the whole world is in favor of his greatness. Before the great tragedy of Ms. Benazir Bhutto’s martyrdom, Asif Ali Zardari endured the hardships of imprisonment for eleven years because he was the husband of Shaheed Bibi.
In order to bring Shaheed Bibi to prison and expel him from politics, the dictatorial governments and the opposition governments of the People’s Party made false cases against Shaheed Bibi and Asif Ali Zardari and kept them in prison, but Asif Ali Zardari was an example of patience and his steps never wavered.Because of his steadfastness Shaheed Bibi continued to clash with authoritarian and hostile forces of Pakistan.
On December 27, 2007, when Ms. Benazir Bhutto was martyred, the foundations of the already troubled country were shaken. After the great tragedy, Asif Ali Zardari mourned Pakistan and gave the message that our sorrow is very great but we have to save Pakistan.This was the time when the Federation of Pakistan and the national, public and democratic forces defending it were facing serious threats. This was the biggest challenge for Asif Ali Zardari. The second major challenge for him was to save the PPP, the political heritage of Shaheed Bhutto and Shaheed Benazir Bhutto, from chaos and division.
Under the leadership of Asif Ali Zardari, the world saw that amazing events took place. The grief of Bibi’s martyrdom was fresh when the PPP went to the elections and then the PPP emerged as the majority party and the government was established. And the world also saw the sight that dictator General Pervez Musharraf was addressing the nation from the President’s House and was resigning while crying.When Pervez Musharraf was leaving the President’s House, people could not believe their eyes. After this incident, Asif Ali Zardari focused on dealing with future threats to the Federation of Pakistan, strengthening democratic forces against terrorists, economic stability of Pakistan and putting Pakistan back on the path of independent foreign policy of Shaheed Bhutto. By following the philosophy of Shaheed Bibi, he ended the political conflict in the country and united the national political forces. Taking advantage of this understanding, the Parliament passed the Eighteenth Constitutional Amendment by unanimous vote. This was a great achievement. The 1973 constitution was restored, but it was further improved and closed in front of the threats facing the federation, Pakistan and democracy.
Asif Ali Zardari not only gave more autonomy to the federal units with this constitutional amendment, but also took steps to end the feeling of deprivation of the small federal units. He not only apologized for the abuses done to the people of Balochistan but also announced the launch of the Balochistan Rights Package. Asif Ali Zardari fulfilled the long-standing demand of the people of Frontier Province and named this province Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and gave the people of the province their national identity. President Asif Ali Zardari approved the FATA reform bill so that these tribal areas can be administratively brought within the constitutional boundaries of Pakistan and they can be prevented from becoming the arena of the greater game of world powers as in the past. Due to the efforts of Asif Ali Zardari the Federation of Pakistan has become truly strong many times.
Another great achievement of President Asif Ali Zardari is that he raised Pakistan-China friendship from the Himalayas again and started CPEC projects in Pakistan. These projects are a game changer not only for Pakistan but for the entire region. Asif Ali Zardari visited China so many times during his tenure as no other heads of state and government of Pakistan. Asif Ali Zardari started the implementation of the grand project of generating electricity from Thar coal. Thar is going to become the energy hub of Pakistan today. Thar coal can provide 25000 megawatts of electricity to Pakistan for a hundred years. This is also a project that will change the fate of Pakistan.
At the same time, President Asif Ali Zardari took many steps to eradicate poverty in the country and to provide relief to the working classes. He started the Benazir Income Support Program which is the grand program in Pakistan history.The success of this program is that it was not only appreciated by the world but also continued and expanded by the coming governments. Asif Ali Zardari took numerous steps to empower women. Five percent quota was set for women in jobs, they allotted land to women farmers and enacted legislation to protect women from violence and harassment. During the presidency of Asif Ali Zardari, five percent quota was also allocated for minorities in jobs and their rights.
He also made legislation for the protection of the constitutional guarantee of human rights at the center and in the provinces. Even today, to deal with the challenges faced by Pakistan’s economy and its politics, all the political forces of Pakistan and the state institutionslook at AsifAli Zardari.He is a great leader, because of him the Parliament is completing its third constitutional term in the history of Pakistan. Because of him, the major and notable political forces of the country are part of the democratic stream.Although Pakistan has got a real leader in the form of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, but the leadership of Asif Ali Zardari is still indispensable for Pakistan. We pray for his good health and long life and also congratulate him on his birthday.
