Ziaul Haq's coup: PPP observing Black Day today

Zardari says July 5 will be remembered as 'the darkest day' in Pakistan's history.

ISLAMABAD: The ruling Pakistan Peoples Party is observing a Black Day across the country today (Thursday) to mark the takeover of the government by General Ziaul Haq in 1977. He had declared Martial Law on July 5, 1977 and toppled the PPP government.

PPP co-chairman and President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari in his message said that July 5 will be remembered in Pakistan’s history as “the darkest day”.

On this day a dictator driven by his self-serving and delusory motives attempted to seal the fate of a progressive and a moderate society by deposing a constitutionally and directly elected prime minister of the country and systematically dismantling legal and constitutional edifice of the country.

Era of darkness

In his message, Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said that the country had plunged into an “era of darkness” on July 5, 1977 when Ziaul Haq had dismissed the government Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.

Ashraf said, “An era of hangings, flogging and worst type of victimisation started with no fundamental rights while thousands of PPP workers were put behind jail indefinitely.”

He said Ziaul Haq’s policies of “vendetta” had surfaced when he implicated Bhutto in a murder case and hanged him in April 1979.

'Protest ceremonies' in Punjab

PPP Punjab has organised protest ceremonies at the district level in the province.

The party’s Lahore division has organised a protest at Aiwan-e-Iqbal. Federal Minister and PPP Lahore President Samina Khalid Ghurki and PPP Punjab President Imtiaz Safdar Warraich are expected to address the procession.