Minority Day: Bilawal vows to struggle for egalitarian, democratic Pakistan

KARACHI: PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that his party will continue its struggle for the establishment of an egalitarian and democratic society in the country for the protection of the equal rights of minorities, so that every citizen can live according to his religion.

He reiterated this commitment in his message issued here on the eve of the National Minorities Day, which has been celebrated across Pakistan on August 11 every year since 2009.

Bilawal said the PPP was the real inheritor of the vision of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, which he had expressed in his speech on August 11, 1948. “This was the ideology that later became the spirit of the 1973 Constitution given as a gift to the Pakistani nation by its first elected Prime Minister, Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, which guarantees equal rights to minorities”, he added.

He said that protecting the rights of minorities and empowering them is part of the manifesto of Pakistan Peoples Party and the Party has always taken practical and revolutionary steps in this regard. “Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto set up a separate ministry for the solution and development of minorities, while President Asif Ali Zardari started celebrating National Day on August 11 every year to show solidarity with minorities, besides, as a Party representing the masses, it has ensured the due representation of minorities in all government institutions, including parliament”, he maintained.

The Bhutto said that the role and sacrifices of minorities in the socio-economic development of Pakistan are of long, glorious and historical significance and are the cause of our collective pride.

He stressed that today we must pledge that despite being followers of different faiths, we are all one nation living in this country and will continue to strive for tolerance, harmony, unity and prosperity in Pakistan.

Bilawal assured the minorities and all the vulnerable segments of the society that his Party would remain the citadel for weak and downtrodden masses and its leadership together with workers will fight for them under every circumstances.