Constitution, not judges, supreme: Khosa

Speaking at a ceremony for ZAB's birth anniversary, Khosa said no one will be able to topple the current government.

LAHORE: The country will not be ruled according to judges but the constitution will prevail, Punjab Governor Sardar Latif Khan Khosa has said.

“The military, judiciary or the US will not be able to topple the incumbent government,” Khosa said, speaking at a ceremony organised on Thursday at the Governor House to commemorate the 84^th birth anniversary of Pakistan Peoples Party founder and former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

The ceremony was attended by PPP General Secretary Jahangir Badar, PPP Punjab President Imtiaz Safdar Warraich and president of the PPP’s women’s wing Faryal Talpur. All office bearers of PPP Azad Jammu and Kashmir, including the region’s president and prime minister, also attended the event.

The governor said that January 5 was an important day as this was the day the United Nations had passed a resolution in favour of the Kashmiri people. “The PPP government will stay in power and support the Kashmir cause. Shaheed ZAB had said that the nation will fight for a thousand years for Kashmir’s freedom if need be,” he said.

Paying a rich tribute to the country’s first democratically-elected prime minister, Badar said that the PPP will continue to implement social and economic reforms as per the philosophy of Bhutto. “PPP was formed as a force against feudalism and capitalism and is the part of the poor and middle classes. This public meeting is a message to the killers of ZAB and Benazir that PPP workers will avenge their murders.”

AJK Prime Minister Chaudhry Abdul Majeed said that Kashmiris living in Pakistan will stand by the PPP leadership. Appreciating ZAB’s commitment to AJK, Majeed said that he was the first person to highlight the cause.

Cake-cutting ceremony

PPP leaders cut a cake to mark the birthday of ZAB. A prayer was held for the souls of ZAB and Benazir as well as the safety and security of the country.

Separately, Talpur inaugurated an exhibition of photographs of ZAB. The exhibition was organised by Feroz Akhtar, the public relations officer of the Sindh chief minister. Over 4,000 photographs of ZAB have been put on display.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly quoted Governor Khosa regarding the state of the government. The error is regretted. 

Updated from Print Edition (below):

Posthumous celebrations: ZAB birthday celebrated at Babar Awan’s residence

In what many may perceive as a symbolic gesture, the Pakistan Peoples Party’s local leadership gathered at newly-appointed party vice president Babar Awan’s residence to celebrate the 84th birthday of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

Against the tradition of hosting such celebrations at the party’s secretariat in sector G-6, Awan, the counsel for the petitioner in the ZAB murder review case, hosted the gathering at his F-8 residence.

Awan is known to be part of ‘another celebration’ in the past, which the PPP leadership considers the most infamous in the country’s history – he had allegedly distributed sweets on the death of ZA Bhutto.   A PPP leader shunned the impression that the birthday gathering at Awan’s house was meant to send any message. “The party secretariat is under renovations. It has been temporarily shifted to the vice-president’s house; that is why the gathering was held there,” maintained the PPP leader.

Special prayers were held in the presidency and were attended by President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, federal ministers, parliamentarians and officers and staff of President’s Secretariat.

“The participants prayed to the Almighty for the success of the mission of the Shaheed leader and to grant eternal peace to his soul,” a spokesman to the president said.

In Lahore, less than 1, 000 workers participated in the birthday celebrations at the Punjab governor house, where arrangements for around 10,000 people were made.

President Asif Ali Zardari’s sister, Faryal Talpur, who had been staying at the governor’s house since over a week, was disappointed to see the worker strength at the occasion, a PPP official close to Talpur told The Express Tribune.

PPP’s General Secretary Janhangir Badar, PPP Punjab President Imtiaz Safdar Warraich and Punjab Governor Sardar Latif Khan Khosa delivered speeches to empty chairs in the governor house.

All office-bearers of PPP Azad and Jammu and Kashmir along with the president and prime minister of AJK participated in the event. (Additional reporting by Abdul Manan in Lahore)

Published in The Express Tribune, January 6^th, 2012.