Sindh announces public holiday on April 4

KARACHI – The provincial government in country's southeastern region on Thursday announced a public holiday on April 4 on account of the death anniversary of former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

A notification issued by General Administration and Coordination department said "Government of Sindh has been pleased to declare 4th April 2023 (Tuesday) as a Public Holiday throughout the Province of Sindh”.

It further mentioned that all offices, autonomous and semi-autonomous bodies, corporations and local councils falling under the administrative control of the provincial government would remain closed on the day.

However, the departments working under the administrative control of the federal government and banks will remain open. 

Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto – A Profile

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was born on January 5, 1928, in Larkana. His father, Sir Shah Nawaz Bhutto, was the dewan (Prime Minister) of the princely state of Junagadh.

Educated at Berkeley and Oxford, Bhutto trained as a barrister at Lincoln’s Inn. He served as Foreign Minister of Pakistan in Ayub Khan’s government but parted ways with him and founded his own party Pakistan People’s Party in 1967.

His party bagged a major share in 1970 elections in West Pakistan, and after Dhaka fall, Gen Yahya Khan transferred power to Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and he became prime minister in 1973. Bhutto served in this capacity till his government was overthrown by Gen Zia-ul-Haq.

The PPP won the 1977 parliamentary elections but scores of political parties alleged PPP of rigging and amid wide-spread protests in July 1977, chief of army staff General Zia-ul-Haq deposed Bhutto in a bloodless coup.

Bhutto was executed on April 4, 1979, for authorising the murder of a political opponent, Ahmad Raza Khan Kasuri, although political observers still claim that it was a judicial murder on the behest of Zia-ul-Haq.

‘No more Jiye Bhutto, but Jiye Awam,’ says Zulfikar Bhutto Jr at Sindh trans-march