Was the 1947 Partition a Historical Blunder?
Islamabad Mosque Bombing and the Reality of Sectarian Hatred
Declaring Ahmadis Non-Muslim: Institutionalised Religious Persecution
Non-Muslim Minorities in Pakistan: Second-Class Citizenship by Law
The Imran Khan Illusion and the Failure of Political Islam
Can Pakistan’s Crisis Be Solved Within the Existing Framework?
Reuniting the Subcontinent: A Controversial but Radical Solution
Former Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju argues that Pakistan’s sectarian violence and minority persecution expose the failure of the Islamic state created in 1947.
Pakistanis, now have your Islamic state
By Justice Markandey Katju
When I said that the partition of 1947 was a British swindle, and that Pakistan, created as an Islamic state, is a fake, artificial country, and is really part of India, and will definitely reunite with it one day under a secular government, I was strongly criticised and even abused by many Pakistanis.
But what has happened today in Islamabad goes to prove that I am correct. A Shia mosque was bombed during Friday prayers, killing at least 31 Shias and injuring 169 others, evidently by Sunni extremists, who believe that Shias are heretics, and not true Muslims, and therefore do not deserve to live.
For long, Ahmadis were declared non-Muslims and treated barbarically
Even if Ahmadis say there was another Prophet after Mohammed, are they cutting off anyone's head, are they chopping off anyone's limbs?
And of course Hindus, Sikhs, Christians and other minorities in Pakistan are treated like second ( or third ) rate citizens and persecuted by blasphemy laws etc and not allowed to occupy high positions like President, Prime Minister, etc
Many Pakistanis think that Pakistan's massive socio-economic problems will be solved once former Prime Minister Imran Khan is released from jail and again becomes the PM, after a fresh and free elections. But this is an illusion. Imran Khan has really nothing in his head and has no solution to Pakistan's huge problems of massive poverty, unemployment, etc. When he was the PM, he kept talking of Madine ki Riyasat and other such reactionary nonsense, and before the 2018 parliamentary elections, he gave PTI tickets to dubious 'electables', and hobnobbed with religious extremists.
The real solution to Pakistan's problems is reuniting with India under modern-minded patriotic leaders determined to transform our subcontinent into a modern industrial giant, like China, and steadily raising the standard of living of our people and giving them decent lives, as I have explained in my articles below :
(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.)
