PPP to observe 'Black Day' today against toppling of Bhutto govt in 1977

KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has called for observing ‘Black Day’ on July 5, (today) across the country to condemn the toppling of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s democratic government through a military coup in 1977.

In a statement issued, the PPP chairman said that July 05, 1977 will remain a black day in the history of Pakistan because hopes and aspirations of the nation were crushed by a tinpot dictator who remains the root of every evil which continues to haunt the people till now.

The party will hold protest demonstrations, rallies, seminars and other gatherings against the 1977 martial law.

“PPP has always struggled for democracy and supremacy of law and the constitution in the country. It couldn’t endorse any undemocratic act,” the party’s central Punjab president Qamar Zaman Kaira said while addressing a press conference yesterday.

Kaira, criticizing the PML-N leadership, said that it must avoid the path of confrontation as it wouldn’t bring Nawaz Sharif any benefit and urged the PM to avoid politics through the state institutions. The PPP leader said that as the JIT judgement was nearing, frustration in the ranks of the PML-N was getting higher. To a question, he said the Constitution of Pakistan doesn’t work in accordance with the wish of any King.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was imprisoned and subsequently tried for the murder of a political rival. Being convicted of murder in a controversial trial, Bhutto, the first elected prime minister of Pakistan, was hanged to death on April 4, 1979.