Islamabad April 3, 2008: "The Quaid-i-Awam Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto awakened the people and gave voice to the muted turbulence of their spirit by making them realize that they were the legitimate fountainhead of political power. That was a singular achievement as no dictatorship has been able to rob the masses of this realisation".

PPP Co-Chairman Senator Asif Ali Zardari said this in a message on the occasion of the 29th martyrdom anniversary of the Party's founding Chairman Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto falling on April 4th.

The tripod of Shaheed Bhutto's achievements rests on awakening the people, giving the country a unanimous Constitution and strengthening nations' defences by giving it nuclear programme, the Kamra Aeronautical factory
and the Heavy Mechanical Complex, he said.

He said Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto lent new meaning to the fight against dictatorship by leading the fight for democracy from the front and even laying down his life before leaving this world to join the ranks of immortals.

The PPP Co-Chairman said that Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto believed in dialogue and negotiations to resolve most complex political issues instead of resort to force.

It was through dialogue and negotiations that Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto recovered the territory lost in the 1971 war and brought back ninety thousand prisoners of war from Indian camps. The Simla Accord that brought longest spell of peace between India and Pakistan also stands as a lasting monument to Shaheed Bhutto's negotiating skills, the PPP Co-Chairman said.

"It was he who prevented through negotiations the war trials of our military officers to protect the name and honour of the country".

Shaheed Bhutto was 'Pakistan's modernizer' who left deep footprints in the sands of history. It is a measure of his mark on history that his martyrdom sparked freedom movements in many countries as people gathered in capitals
across the world to condemn his murder, he said.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was a thinker, a friend of the poor, downtrodden and oppressed. Fearless in his beliefs he refused to bow before any man or power other than the Almighty.

On this anniversary of Shaheed Bhutto our hearts grieve even more as his daughter and Chairperson of the Party Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto has also fallen victim to the assassin's bullets, he said.

The PPP Co-Chairman asked the Party workers to rededicate themselves to the ideals of Bhutto on this day of martyrdom to tell the world that Bhutto still lives in the hearts and minds of the people and, from his grave, haunts the enemies of democracy (Zinda hai Bhutto)