PESHAWAR: Former president and co-chairperson of Pakistan Peoples Party, Asif Ali Zardari, has urged his party workers to remain prepared to stand up against a possible conspiracy to amend the Constitution for slashing powers of the provinces.

He said this in a written statement which was read out at a function held in connection with the 12th death anniversary of slain PPP leader and former minister Syed Qamar Abbas at Peshawar Press Club on Saturday.

Party’s provincial president Mohammad Humayun Khan presided over the event while other leaders, including Rahim Dad Khan, Nisar Safdar, Liaquat Shabab, Syed Ayub Shah and Tahir Abbas, also paid tributes to Qamar Abbas.

Mr Zardari’s statement was read out by Qamar Abbas’s brother Tahir Abbas.

In the statement, the PPP co-chairperson lauded the services of Qamar Abbas he had rendered for welfare of poor people and urged the party workers to fulfil the mission of the martyred leaders and get prepared for another practical struggle to save democracy from loaming shades of dictatorship.

Death anniversary of PPP leader Qamar Abbas marked

He alleged that a ‘selected’ government had been imposed through rigging on the nation and the parliament was disgraced through a conspiracy to pave the way for dictatorship.

He added that all kinds of efforts were underway against the 18th Amendment, NFC award, provincial autonomy and setting up of technocrats’ government.

The former president said that the people who had struggled for the rule of law and condemned the menace of terrorism were described as traitors. However, he stated that whatever scheme was devised, the PPP would take a firm stand to face such hardships for the rule of law and supremacy of the Constitution.

The PPP, he said, would expose the people who were hatching conspiracies.

He urged the workers to take a lesson from the struggle of people like Qamar Abbas and step up their efforts for strengthening democracy. He also paid tribute to the family of the slain leader for its long association with the party.

Other PPP leaders also paid tributes to Qamar Abbas and vowed to fulfil his mission for the party and people. The participants also offered fateha for the departed soul of Qamar Abbas.

Published in Dawn, May 5th, 2019