From Admirer to Critic and Back Again
Imran Khan’s Imprisonment and the Cost of Resistance
A Judiciary Under the Shadow of the Establishment
Why Imran Khan’s Spirit Remains Unbroken
Churchill’s Defiance and the Echoes of History
Democracy Versus Fear in Pakistan
The Meaning of Courage Against Overwhelming Odds
Justice Markandey Katju explains why he once again admires Imran Khan, praising his unyielding courage and defiance in prison as a symbol of the struggle for democracy in Pakistan...
Hats off to Imran Khan!
By Justice Markandey Katju
'' Sar par hawa-e-zulm chale sau jatan ke saath
Kaptan ki kulahkaj hai usi baankepan ke saath ''
I had been an ardent admirer of former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, later his severe critic, and have now again become his ardent admirer.
In August 2023, I wrote an article titled 'What a man !' praising Imran Khan for bravely fighting against the fascist reign of terror unleashed by the Pakistan Establishment.
Now I have again become his ardent admirer and supporter.
My reason is how can one not be an enthusiast of a man who simply will not give up his fight for the restoration of democracy in Pakistan, whatever the fearful odds?
Imran Khan has been in prison since August 2023 on trumped-up and concocted charges, convicted by the pliant and subservient Pakistan judiciary. He has been incarcerated in inhuman conditions in a tiny cell, and is presently in solitary confinement. His sisters and lawyers have now been denied meeting him, and his sons denied talking to him on the telephone.
All this would have broken the spirit of any other man. But Imran Khan's spirit is undaunted.
One is reminded of Britain’s Prime Minister Winston Churchill who in the darkest days in the summer of 1940, when a Nazi German invasion of Britain was imminent, said ” We shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight in the air, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills, we shall never surrender ”.
I am also reminded of Winston Churchill’s words :
” In War: Resolution,
In Defeat: Defiance,
In Victory: Magnanimity
In Peace: Good Will.”
In my opinion, no one and nothing can crush the dauntless, indomitable spirit of the Kaptan, who has the support of 90% of the people of Pakistan, as well as mine now.
(Justice Markandey Katju is a former Judge of the Supreme Court of India, and former Chairman, of the Press Council of India. The views expressed are his own.)
