The Desire to Explore Pakistan's Beauty
Explore Justice Markandey Katju's reasons for never visiting Pakistan, highlighting the challenges of obtaining a visa, personal safety concerns, and legal risks associated with his views on Partition. Discover the complexities of this heartfelt desire to experience Pakistan's beauty while facing insurmountable obstacles.
Why I can never visit Pakistan
By Justice Markandey Katju
I would love to come to Pakistan and see the beautiful places there, of which I have heard so much, but which I have only been able to see on YouTube.
But there are three insuperable obstacles, which make that impossible.
(1) I will never get a visa because I have repeatedly said that Pakistan is a fake, artificial country, and is part of India, to which it is bound to be reunited. Partition, on the basis of the bogus 2 nation theory, was a British swindle, and must be undone.
When in California I was invited to visit Lahore by my friend Haider Raza, who hails from Lahore, but I explained to him why I will never get a Pakistani visa.
(2) Even if I get a visa, I will almost certainly be assassinated soon after my plane lands on Pakistani soil.
This is because I have repeatedly said that all religions are superstitions and false, and the truth lies in science.
Since the expression 'All religions' would include Islam, I will certainly be declared a blasphemer by Tehreek-e-Labaik or Lashkar-e- Toiba or Jaish-e-Mohammed or some other madcap religious extremist organisation, branded as 'wajib al qatl' and lynched, like so many others, including, of late, Dr Shah Nawaz.
Instead of protecting Dr Shahnawaz, the police themselves became his murderers, and religious clerics endorsed the killing.
In Pakistan simply being accused of blasphemy ( though there may be no proof ) ensures lynching by a frenzied mob of aroused fanatics
Some Pakistani friends I spoke with on WhatsApp told me I will get police security. But the police guard Mumtaz Qadri, who was supposed to protect Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, himself shot the latter, whom he was supposed to protect. Bigots and fanatics are in the police force too ( Indira Gandhi was shot by her own guards ), so there can be no real security
(3) Section 123A of the Pakistan Penal Code states that speaking against the Partition of 1947 is a criminal offence, which carries a sentence of upto 10 years imprisonment.
I will certainly speak against the fraudulent Partition of 1947 and advocate reunification, if I manage to reach Pakistan, for which I will be promptly arrested, and may have to spend many years in a horrible Pakistani jail, where I may even be bumped off (anything can happen in Pakistan), and I do not relish the idea.
(Justice Katju।s a retired judge of the Supreme Court of।ndia. These are his personal views.)
