In his opinion article, titled, “From Army to Imran, all political players in Pakistan are frauds,” dated October 30, 2019, published in The Week Magazine of UK, Justice Katju has negatively written on Pakistan. He has termed Pakistan, a rotten state as nothing is right there. He thinks that the promises Imran Khan made during the election campaign were never fulfilled by him. To him, the PPP and the PML (N) leaders looted Pakistan. Even, the recent Azadi March of Fazlur Rahman was a fraud as he is a thug and a rank opportunist. The real power in Pakistan remains with the army, which has its fingers in almost every sector of the economy.
Justice Markandey Katju is a retired judge of the Supreme Court of India. He has also served as the chairman of Press Council of India. Justice Katju currently serves as the chairman of the Indian Reunification Association (IRA), an organisation that advocates for the peaceful reunification of Pakistan and Bangladesh with India under a secular government.
In his above-referred article, Katju has expressed many random negative thoughts about Pakistan. It appears that while writing articles, Katju does not carry out a proper research or a comparative analysis. He neither studies the historical background nor assesses the ground realities. At times, Katja is taken away by his emotions. Hence, many of his articles give an impression of being biased and imbalanced, especially in the case of Pakistan.
Many examples prove the above-mentioned shortcomings of Justice Katju’s articles about Pakistan. For instance, on the one hand, Katju has lauded Prime Minister Imran Khan in his Facebook post that he deserves Nobel Peace Prize for his statesmanlike approach in the face of heightened tensions between Pakistan and India. On the other hand, he terms Khan a fraud, that too, without giving any evidence to prove his allegation. Just after one year in power, saying that Imran Khan has not fulfilled his election promises is too early to comment, based on which, he cannot be termed as a fraud.
Moreover, while Justice Katju calls Pakistan military a fraud without presenting any credible evidence, he also highly praised the Pakistan military for its professionalism and warfighting capability as compared with the Indian military. This, he said, during the Line of Control (LOC) tensions between India and Pakistan. His comments about Pakistan’s military are unbelievable because a fraud military cannot be so professional. Even Katju has cautioned the Indian military that it should not indulge in a war with the highly professional and battle-hardened Pakistan’s military.
Justice Katju has also said that the real power in Pakistan lies with the military, which has its fingers on every sector of its economy
Moreover, Justice Katju has also said that the real power in Pakistan lies with the military, which has its fingers on every sector of its economy. The fact remains that there is a well-functioning democratic elected government in the country, where the power lies with it as per the constitution of Pakistan. And, as Katju has himself praised the Pakistan military, it carries out its professional responsibilities.
As far as Katju’s blame of corruption on some Pakistani political leaders is concerned, corruption situation is the same in India and Pakistan. While some Pakistan politicians are undergoing enquiry and trial for corruption, many Indian leaders, like a former prime minister and a chief minister have been punished for corruption. While Katju has alleged Maulana Fazlur Rehman being greedy for power, he should note that Modi got power by winning the elections by telling lies about carrying out fake surgical strikes in Pakistan and destroying the so-called terrorist camps.
Also, Katju has stated in his article that Pakistan is a rotten state, where nothing is right. While making such comments, Katju should have first thought about India, which is really a rotten state, where the people of Jammu and Kashmir are undergoing curfew and communication lockdown for the last 112 days now, and the Indian forces are carrying out genocide and using the rape in Kashmir as a weapon of war, as propounded by the BJP, and where India has broken all records of violation of human rights and the human values.
Is not India a rotten state, where Hindutva forces are lynching the Muslims just for rearing cows and where the Indian Supreme Court has given a decision against 500-years-old Babri mosque just to please the Hindutva lovers. Is not India a rotten state, which been internationally declared as the most dangerous country for the women and the social media has termed India as Rapeistan.
Given the above discussion, it is expected that in future, Justice Katju will write articles about Pakistan, which are based on well-researched facts, and quoting credible evidence, and Pakistan should not be blamed for those things, which are rampant in India. And Justice Katju should worry about the Indian economy, and not Pakistan’s, as Pakistan’s economy is more resilient than India and its growth will excel India’s growth within the next few years. Whereas India’s economy is already on a “Free Fall,” as per Rajendra Aneja’s article, titled, “Why the Indian Economy is on the Free Fall,” published in the Saudi Gazette.
The writer is a former Research Fellow of Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI)