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Pakistan: Women's Action Forum on Benazir's assassination

Source: 
WAF / Daily Times
The Women's Action Forum (WAF) issues a statement on the assassination of former prime minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto, while campaigning for upcoming national elections.
The Women’s Action Forum (WAF), a long-standing coalition of Pakistani women's rights activists, sternly condemned the assassination of Benazir Bhutto during her campaign rally in Rawalpindi. The WAF members in a statement said Bhutto was Pakistan’s most popular leader who was also a representative of all Pakistani women in a ‘male dominated society’. They said Bhutto had been the voice of the repressed women and poor people of the society. The WAF members have written the following poem as a tribute to Bhutto:
Requiem for Benazir Bhutto

Women’s Action Forum grieves.
It grieves with Bakhtawar, Bilawal and Asifa,
It grieves with Nusrat and Sanam Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari,
It grieves with all members of the Bhutto family,
It grieves with the PPP and all PPP workers and supporters,
It grieves with the poor and the oppressed,
It grieves with and for our country and the people of Pakistan,
WAF grieves.

Benazir Bhutto lived a tragic and tumultuous life,
Fraught with pain and loss,
A celebrated life,
Of success and exhilaration,
One that reached out and responded to the anguish and hope of people,
And articulated and converted these hopes, giving sustenance to so many.

Women’s Action Forum while sometimes critical of her policies
Took pride in the fact that she was a woman.
A woman who controlled her own destiny,
A woman who instinctively and wholeheartedly
Embraced equal rights and opportunities,
For women and religious minorities,
A brave woman, a woman of courage.

As with her father, ZA Bhutto,
Look for her in moments that need fortitude,
Look for her in moments that need courage,
Look for her in hope,
Look for her in all those she touched.

Women’s Action Forum grieves.

--WAF 28 December 2007

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WAF Press Statement

While demanding an immediate resignation from President Pervez Musharraf, the Women’s Action Forum (WAF) asked the government for an explanation as to why the venue of the assassination was immediately hosed down, destroying all evidence at the scene of crime.

In a press release, issued here on Saturday, it was said the WAF was shocked at the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. It was also said in the statement that WAF was deeply angered at the pretence made by the government that it was a suicide bomb blast and, it added, the people of Pakistan would never be fooled by this attempt to cover-up the truth.

The WAF demanded that President Musharraf should immediately resign and that his regime, that had brought the bloodiest period in Pakistan since 1971,be put to an end. It was also demanded that the judges of November 2 should be reinstated, so that an impartial inquiry commission could be established and the real culprits could be identified and brought to justice.

It was further stated that WAF stood with the people of Pakistan, the Pakistan People’s Party and the Bhutto family as it grieved the tremendous loss of Benazir Bhutto.

Apart from this, the Joint Action Committee for people’s rights also announced a candlelit vigil at the Liberty Roundabout on January 1, 2008 at 5:30 pm, to stage a peaceful protest against the most grieved assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

Source: Daily Times

30 December 2007

Submitted on Sun, 12/30/2007 - 01:00
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