Nation pays tribute to Daughter of the East

PM Yousaf Raza Gilani urged all political parties to join hands, in order to cope with the challenges faced by the country.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Monday urged all political parties to join hands, in order to cope with the challenges faced by the country. He said this while addressing a gathering at the stone-laying ceremony of the Benazir Bhutto Monument at Shakarparian in Islamabad on Bhutto’s 57th birth anniversary.

“I extend a hand of friendship towards all political forces. Let us stand together and adopt a policy of reconciliation, consensus and friendship to face the challenges....We might come across stronger challenges in the future, but to face these, our determination is even stronger,” he said.

Gilani said the former premier and PPP chairperson had signed the Charter of Democracy with PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif to do away with the culture of confrontation and make the democratic system stable in the spirit of reconciliation.

In the meanwhile, a blood donation camp was established at the PPP Central Secretariat in Islamabad to mark the birth anniversary of the late Benazir Bhutto.

In Lahore, Punjab’s finance minister Tanvir Ashraf Kaira requested the speaker of the provincial assembly to offer Fateha for the PPP leader “who embraced martyrdom for the cause of the people of Pakistan.”

Deputy General Secretary of the PPP in Punjab, Usman Malik told APP that more than 10,000 pints of blood had been collected by camps throughout Punjab. He said the main blood camp was established at the PPP Punjab office with the coordination of an NGO. Donors donated blood at 14 places in the city while more than 80 camps were arranged by PPP’s Punjab wing across the province where thousands of PPP workers donated their blood, he said. Also, over 160 people donated blood at Jai Shahadat, said doctor Muhammad Farooq Khan, divisional blood transfusion officer Rawalpindi.

Like other parts of the country, Bhutto’s birth anniversary was celebrated in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and South Waziristan, Kurram and Bajaur agencies as well.

An event was held at Kot Barki in South Waziristan Agency where PPP leaders and workers cut a cake. Similarly blood donation camps and other events were organised in Azad Jammu Kashmir, Kohat and Peshawar too. (With additional input from WIRES)

Published in The Express Tribune, June 22^nd, 2010.