Saturday, February 12, 2011

Brief History:
1967 - 2000
by Fakhar Zaman

Ayub Khan lost at the negotiation table at Tashkent the war that was won by the Pakistan army supported by the people of Pakistan in 1965. This humiliation enraged the people of Pakistan against the dictator. Mr. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, a patriot as he has always been, was left with no choice but to quit the Ayub Government on June 16, 1966. Bhutto was determined to bring down the dictator who had betrayed the nation.

To achieve this goal, he needed a political organization and a political platform. He waited for more than a year before he found both; like so many aggrieved politicians before him, he chose to found his own political party.

The PPP was launched at its founding convention held in Lahore on November 30 - December 01, 1967. At the same meeting, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was elected as its Chairman. Among the express goals for which the party was formed were the establishment of an "egalitarian democracy" and the "application of socialistic ideas to realize economic and social justice". A more immediate task was to struggle against the hated dictatorship of Ayub Khan,who was at the height of his power when the PPP was formed. Basic principles of PPP enshrined:

    • Islam is our Faith

    • Democracy is our politics

    • Socialism is our Economy

    • All Power to the People

The Party also promised the elimination of feudalism in accordance with the established principles of socialism to protect and advance the interests of peasantry.

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