ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari Monday said it was the collective obligation of the whole world to strengthen democracy and not that of the individual nations only.

Bilawal, in his message on the eve of International Day of Democracy being observed on Tuesday, endorsed the United Nations statement that “the values of freedom, respect for human rights and the principle of holding periodic and genuine elections by universal suffrage are essential elements of democracy”.

He said the fight between democratic and dictatorial forces, which began in Pakistan after the death of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, was still raging despite the sacrifices of democratic leaders.

The democratic workers, he said, suffered capital punishments, solitary confinements, tortures, public lashing, long imprisonments and fabricated cases at the hands of tinpot dictators and their puppets, but never compromised on democratic and human rights of the people.

"The Pakistanis' struggle for democracy and the huge sacrifices made to achieve it, stands out in the contemporary struggles for democratic systems," he added.

Bilawal Bhutto said the PPP had the credit to give the first-ever unanimous constitution of the country, the first-ever directly prime minister and the first-ever woman elected prime minister of Islamic world, besides the first democratic government that completed its tenure.

He pledged that his party would continue the struggle for strengthening democracy.