Anniversary: Benazir remembered as role model

Participants at vigil pay tribute to the slain PPP leader

Participants at vigil pay tribute to the slain PPP leader. PHOTO: EXPRESS

LAHORE:


The Civil Society Network held a vigil on Sunday in memory of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto who was killed in a gun-and-bomb attack on December 27, 2007.


Civil Society Network president Abdullah Malik said that people from various professions and classes had joined them.

Benazir Bhutto had stood for the freedom of speech, he said. “The candles we are lighting are testimony to the fact that Benazir Bhutto’s ideals are alive in all of us,” he said.

He demanded that political parties do more to combat terrorism. “Very little is being done to implement the National Action Plan against terrorism.”


Rana Ikram Rabbani, a former Pakistan Peoples Party legislator, said it was sad that Bhutto’s assassins had not been arrested. “Her murderers are hiding behind the people who make tall claims about catching them,” he said.

PPP’s Chaudhry Ghulam Abbas said Bhutto was not only a role model for Pakistan but also the rest of the world. He said she had always stood for freedom. Why have her murderers not been arrested?”

Iftikhar Shahid, a PPP member, said Bhutto’s assassination was meant to finish off the party. “When they killed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, they thought the party would die too but that did not happen,” he said. “Even today conspiracies are being hatched against the PPP. Those who say Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is not fit to lead should know that this [leadership] is his inheritance.”

Participants of the vigil shouted “Benazir is still alive”.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 28th, 2015.

 
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