LARKANA: Ghinwa Bhutto, chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples’ Party-Shaheed Bhutto (PPP-SB), has said the rulers are afraid of social democracy and no democracy can survive under capitalism.

Addressing a public meeting marking the 39th death anniversary of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto held at Garhi Khuda Bukhsh Bhutto on Wednesday she said socialism was the basic tool of democracy and therefore it [democracy] could work well with socialism.

It was not democracy where only 20 per cent elite class own land, money and enjoyed privileges where people were just slaves to them, she added.

“In democracy there is peace, free education, availability of safe drinking water, but it is not democracy wherein Naqeebullah Mehsud, Mashal Khan and Zainab are killed,” she said.

“It is not democracy where people are forced to drink contaminated water. But why would rulers take care of it? They were the owners of big hydrants and drinking water companies.”

Why such rulers would be worried about peace in the country, when they were running their own private security agencies, she claimed.

She said staple food should be available in democracy to the people, but here rulers were owners of sugar mills and factories where people did not have access to food items at lower prices.

Turning to rumours about scrapping of 18th Amendment, she said provincial autonomy was the idea of Z.A. Bhutto, but it was Ghous Bakhsh Bizenjo then, who had come out with the idea that we lacked sources to implement it at this juncture. Therefore the issue of provincial autonomy remained half-addressed, she claimed.

She said people could not enjoy provincial autonomy till they were made masters of their resources.

Without naming PPP leadership, she said they were deceiving people in the name of granting them provincial autonomy because in the presence of the National Finance Commission, there could not be provincial autonomy. She said the PPP-SB’s vision was to abolish the NFC.

She said without ensuring rights to peasants and labourers there would neither be provincial autonomy, nor real decentralisation. She said Dr Mubashir Hassan was the pioneer of the idea of decentralisation, when Z.A. Bhutto had asked him to frame policy about it.

She said Z.A. Bhutto was a strong advocate of social justice, but it were what she called ‘anti-people’ forces who had eliminated him.

She said his [Z.A. Bhutto] policies of land reforms were left half way while nationalisation process was sabotaged. She said now Asif Ali Zardari was talking about nationalisation to reap benefit, but it was mere eyewash as today “he himself owned big sugar mills”.

She said global scene was changing and referring to India, she said today it [India] was hosting reception for Israeli prime minister.

She said today’s rulers of Saudi Arabia were sitting in the lap of US while in the past King Faisal was against imperialist forces.

“I am happy to see that rulers had tilted towards Russia and China,” she said adding that friendship could only be strengthened by elected representatives otherwise people were hearing about ‘corruption’ in CPEC. She expressed her confidence that people in the upcoming elections would vote for the PPP-SB.

She urged the participants in the gathering to propagate love and continue struggle, as today people were filled with hatred.

“If we succeed in spreading love, it will be a big victory,” she added.

She concluded her speech with Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s poetry: “aur raaj kare gi khalq-i-khuda, jo main bhi hoon aur tum bhi ho”.

Ali Ahmed Palipoto, president of the PPP-SB Sindh chapter, Saleem Shah, president KP, Jam Azam, organiser of PPP-SB Punjab, Chaudhry Muneer, writers Aijaz Mangi, Masroor Pirzado, Rubina Abro also addressed the gathering.

On the occasion Aijaz Mangi’s book was launched.

Resolutions

The public meeting passed 12 resolutions and demanded exemplary punishment to the killers of Z.A. Bhutto, Mir Murtaza Bhutto and other “heroes” who had laid down their lives for peoples’ freedom.

The meeting condemning Israel’s atrocities in Palestine warned the US to desist from interfering in the internal affairs of Syria and Palestine.

“We feel there could be no real accountability of Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif, therefore they should be tried in Awami Adalat,” a resolution said, criticising rulers’ agriculture policy and demanding enforcement of Z.A. Bhutto’s land reforms.

In another resolution the public meeting opposed privatising Pakistan Steel and the PIA “under the diktat of the IMF and the World Bank”.

The meeting also called for framing foreign police in the light of changing world scene. In another resolution the meeting called for resolving the Kashmir issue in the light of UN resolutions.

Published in Dawn, April 5th, 2018