Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto said the PPP stood for women's rights and regarded women as the Mothers, daughters, sisters of the country whose life, liberty and right to happiness was a fundamental rights.
Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto said that PPP Founder Quaid e Awam Zulfikar Ali Bhutto emancipated women of Pakistan who were shackled to superstition, exploitation and slavery. The PPP was carrying on his mission to safeguard the rights of the daughters of our country.
Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto said it was unhelpful that the regime persisted in persecuting women. She said that General Musharaf's medieval view that women want to get raped for benefits reflected the extremist tribal ideology which had no place in modern Pakistan. Under this extremist view, camouflaged under false claims of "enlightened moderation",
disadvantaged groups, including women, minorities, labour and peasants were facing increasing hardships and discrimination.
The Chairperson PPP recalled that under Musharaf, Mukhtaran Mai's rapists were repeatedly freed and only reimprisoned under international pressure. Mukhtaran Mai herself was banned from travelling abroad by a military junta that allowed rape to flourish under its tenure and considered talking about it as a crime and punished those that wished to highlight the problem to eliminate it. The Chairperson said that Shazia Khalid was forced to flee into exile under death threats conveyed by officials of the regime and her rapist went unpunished. Another rapist in Azad Kashmir was also not tried hiding under his army uniform when in fact he had disgraced the uniform and should have been stripped of it. The tragedy in the life of Sonia Naz who was raped by so called protectors of the law was another black mark on the Musharaf junta.
Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto said that instead of chasing rapists, the regime was chasing opponents and rigging elections which had led to the collapse of governance. Inflation, Unemployment, lack of basic utilities and the miserable state of the disadvantaged groups was hurting the quality of life of the citizens. The inability of the Election Commission or the Judiciary to provide relief to victims and the overbearing political role of the military in civilian life was leading many scholars to call Pakistan a failed state.
Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto said that Musharaf Junta had three tenures as army chief and two as President, one before the Referendum and one after the General elections. But it had failed to resolve the problems of the people. She said that every dictator from Ayub to Yayha to Zia tried to strengthen his dictatorship by seeking external crutches while ignoring the day to day problems of the people. She said people of Pakistan were not born slaves that they should accept the "conquest of the constitution" through illegal means of brute force as has occurred since 1999. She asked all patriotic people to support the movement to end military dictatorship and bring back the rule of law, representative governance and freedoms where through accountability and representation, Pakistan could be pulled out of the crisis in which power hungry individuals had placed it. She asked the people to speak up for what was right and against what was wrong and to join public meetings and sits ins and other protests arranged by the ARD to create pressure to end the tyranny which was leading to myriad social, economic and political problems of which the rise in rape statistics was one part of the ugly reality.
Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto said that despite the attempts to silence her through concocted and fabricated cases, she was determined to speak up for the rights of the exploited, oppressed, suppressed, repressed and disadvantaged people of Pakistan.
It may be recalled that Yazman (District Bahawalpur Pakistan), a 13 year old Christian girl Rukhsana who was returning to her home, was allegedly kidnapped by Nazir Ahmed (Jeera) at gun point and taken to the nearest New Apostolic Church and raped. On hearing cries of the helpless girl people of the area rushed and saw Nazir Ahmed raping Rukhsana inside the Church. On seeing the people, the accused ran away waving his gun in his air. According to the priest, influential people of the area stopped the poor family from taking any action against the accused.
However the girl was hospitalised and her medical examination conducted, According to her advocate, the medico legal report is awaited from a Multan hospital. Under the Chief Minister Punjab, whose family previously were alleged to be supporters of Lashkar e Tayyaba, the police was not interested in registering an FIR of the case until 3-9-2005. Having been pressurised to register the case under public and church influence, the regime is turning a blind eye as terrorists threaten Priest Binyamin who has been forced to save his life by hiding with his family.
Under Chief Minister Punjab, the rapists have no fear and do not hide. It is the victims who have to hide because Musharaf's regime does not give them protection. Thus Shazia Khalid, Sonia Naz and scores of others were forced into hiding while the criminals walked free and Musharaf mocked rape victims by claiming that they cry rape to become millionaires and to get a Canadian visa.
Incidentally not a single rape victim became rich. Their lives were ruined forever.