KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly on Tuesday adopted a unanimous resolution to pay rich tributes to the “martyrs of the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD)”, an alliance of political parties founded in 1983 against the then military dictator Gen Ziaul Haq.

The resolution was tabled by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) member Ghulam Qadir Chandio, who said the martyrs of the MRD, including his father Punhal Khan Chandio, had created a history of courage through their eternal sacrifices. “Despite the violence and arrests, the PPP workers remained steadfast with the party bravely and faced the coercive despotism during the dictatorial period,” he added.

Speaking on the resolution, PPP’s senior most member in the house and former chief minister Qaim Ali Shah said that other political leaders also went to jail but none of them showed the courage like Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. “The difficult period of Ziaul Haq was not like today and the PPP faced it with courage,” he added.

According to former speaker Agha Siraj Durrani, the prevalence of democracy in the country today was the result of the sacrifices made by the PPP leadership and workers in the movement of the MRD.

Ghani says school curriculum should include content related to peaceful movement against Zia regime

Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani said the MRD was launched to get rid of the tyrannical rule of the then military dictator in the country. He said that youth, who were currently associated with the political process, did not have an idea about the importance of the MRD.

Mr Ghani said various political parties, including Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan, Awami National Party, Pakistan Democratic Party, Awami Tehreek, Qaumi Mahaz Azadi, and Tehreek-i-Istiqlal, had joined hands with the PPP to form the MRD in 1983.

He said the formation of that alliance had shown that the PPP’s leadership had set aside their differences for the revival of democracy and progress of the country.

The LG minister said the MRD was a countrywide movement but the struggle had a special emphasis in Sindh that had now become an important part of Pakistan’s political history.

He said the school curriculum should include content related to the MRD so that the coming generation could know of the sacrifices rendered by peaceful political activists to restore democracy in the country.

After the approval of the resolution, the session was prorogued.

Earlier, the local government minister informed the House that the provincial government had allocated a sum of Rs434 million for the restoration of reverse osmosis (RO) water filtration plant in Islamkot, Thar.

Answering queries of the lawmakers during the Question Hour, he said that Islamkot’s RO plant was a mega water filtration facility having the capacity to filter 1.5 million gallons of water daily.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2024