Zardari terms July 5 day of shame

Calls for fighting religious extremism and privatised jihad

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday termed July 5 ‘a day a shame and horror’ for the country.

“July 5 is a day of shame and horror in the country’s history as it was on this day 40 years ago when the nation was hijacked by Bonaparte,” he said in his message on the toppling of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s democratically-elected government in 1977 by military dictator Gen Ziaul Haq.

“It was on this day that a military dictator began decimating state institutions, privatising jihad and enacting black laws against women and non-Muslims in the name of religion,” he said in a statement released by the PPP’s media cell.



“It was on this day that the nation began its collective descent into anarchy and mayhem -- a descent that still continues in the name of religion.”

He said the disastrous policy of privatised jihad and exploitation of religion for political ends continues to haunt the nation to this day. “The need to clearly understand the disastrous consequences of these policies has never been as great as it is today.”

He called for reversing those policies, fighting the mind-set of religious extremism and ending the privatisation of jihad and sectarianism that the dictator’s polices spawned.



“On this day, we reiterate our resolve that Pakistan will have to be a democratic, pluralistic and a moderate country in which there is no place for religious extremism, militancy and sectarianism,” he said.

“On this day let us also resolve that dictators and usurpers of people’s rights and freedoms must be punished,” he said and added: “They will be”.

Zardari also paid homage to the martyrs of democracy. "On this day my thoughts also go to those martyrs of democracy who suffered and sacrificed during that black period of our national history.”

“Our thoughts also go to those who have laid down their lives and suffered otherwise in fighting the extremist mind-set and militant ideology,” he said.