“Fighting militancy and upholding human rights is the best tribute to Benazir Bhutto Shaheed” : President Zardari

 

President Zardari felicitates the nation on conferment of Human Rights Award to Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto

 

 

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari felicitated the nation on conferment of UN Award for Human Rights on Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto saying it has strengthened resolve of government and people to uphold human rights. In a statement released following the conferment of the UN award to the late twice elected Prime Minister of Pakistan in recognition for her outstanding contribution to human rights, the President reiterated the resolve that Pakistan will uphold basic human rights of all individuals regardless of caste, creed or any other consideration.

 

The Human Rights Award was received by Bhutto’s son and Chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in New York on 10 December. The United Nations Prize in the Field of human rights is awarded every five years on Dec. 10; at the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

 

“It is a great day for the country, our people and the Pakistan Peoples Party that its great leader has been recognized by the United Nations and the world community as a champion for upholding human rights and who laid down her life fighting for the democratic rights of her people”.

 

The President said that when Mohtarma Bhutto decided to come to Pakistan last year she knew fully well the dangers to her life but she returned, recalling her own words, “for the right of men and women to live in security and dignity and in liberty.”

 

He said that she returned home for bringing democracy to the country because, she believed that “a democratic Pakistan free from the yolk of military dictatorship would cease to be the petridish of international terrorism.”

 

“As we celebrate the Award let us ask ourselves the question how to protect the inherent dignity and equal rights of all people and how to address the great challenges of discrimination, oppression and injustice as dreamt by the late leader, the President said.

 

“To do this we need to banish militancy, strengthen the national institutions of democracy and create a credible system of accountability. The best way to pay tribute to the memory of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto is to refuse to compromise with the militants and expose and banish them from our midst,” he said.

 

The President said “on this occasion let me reiterate that the government is committed to fighting militants and militancy and not letting them impose their extremist agenda on the people of Pakistan through force and violence,” he said. “Mohtarma Bhutto believed that democracy was critical to fight militancy. She also believed that time, justice and the forces of history were on the side of democracy”.

 

“To commemorate the Human Rights Award to her therefore let us rededicate ourselves to fight against militancy and for the ideals of democracy, liberty and human dignity for which she gloriously lived and valiantly died”

 

 

Bilawal receives UN’s top human rights award for Shaheed Benazir Bhutto

 

An emotion-filled Bilawal Bhutto Zardari received the top UN human rights prize awarded posthumously to his mother, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto, for her outstanding contribution to promoting democracy and fundamental freedoms. “As a son, I was overwhelmed, with sadness and joy,” Chairman Bilawal, who is the PPP chairman, told reporters at UN Headquarters in New York after the impressive award ceremony in the gold-and-blue hall of the General Assembly.

 

The plaque was handed over to Chairman Bilawal by the 192-member assembly president, Miquel d’Escoto Brochmann, who conducted the proceedings before a large number of diplomats, human rights activists and senior UN officials. “I’m extremely happy,” Bilawal said. “Thank you for the honour done to my other.”

 

Earlier, Bilawal fervently called on the Pakistani youth to stay away - as far as possible - from the radical interpretation of Islam and try and spread its message of peace. “The true interpretation of our religion is its message of peace,” he said in reply to a question at a crowded press conference that followed the impressive ceremony marking the 60^th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. He said his mother did every thing possible to promote human rights and fundamental freedoms, adding that a lot of work was needed in the field of human rights as there were still challenges ahead.

 

At the start of the press conference, Chairman Bilawal read a prescient quotation from the autobiography his mother had written before her Dec. 2007 assassination. In the book she said she realized returning to her homeland could cost her life, but she did so because “democracy in Pakistan is not just important for Pakistanis, it is important for the entire world.”

 

With this prestigious Award, Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto joins a distinguished roster of previous laureates that includes apartheid fighter and former South African President Nelson Mandela, US civil rights leader Martin Luther King, former US first Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, former US President Jimmy Carter, and Amnesty International.

 

 

11 December 2008

Courtesy: APP