By NNN-APP,
Islamabad : President Asif Ali Zardari Thursday 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 reitereated 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 early this morning.
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 fight militants and militancy and not let 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”.