The road ahead for Pakistan By Justice Katju

I have repeatedly said that there is only one test for every political activity and political system : does it raise the standard of living of the common man ? Does it give the people better lives ? In other words, does it abolish or reduce poverty, does it give people jobs, proper healthcare and good education, food and other essential commodities at affordable prices, etc ?

When Hitler came to power in Germany in January 1933, there was massive unemployment and inflation in Germany. Within a few years thereafter, unemployment had been almost totally abolished, and inflation controlled. As a result, Hitler became immensely popular with most of the Germans, who began supporting him.

If Field Marshal Asim Munir and the army generals give better lives to the Pakistani people and raises their standard of living, the people of Pakistan, and I too, will support the defacto army rule in Pakistan, even though it has suppressed all civil liberties, muzzled the judiciary and of the media,and incarcerated thousands in jail. After all, the ordinary people of Pakistan are only concerned with their livelihood and the welfare of their families, that is, matters of their bread and butter, not with politics, democracy, freedom of speech or freedom of the judiciary and the media.

But I don’t see how Asim Munir and the bone headed generals can give the Pakistani people better lives, and raise their standard of living. They may know how to fight wars and suppress the people by bayonets. But they have no idea how to ameliorate the terrible socio-economic conditions prevailing in Pakistan, where there is massive poverty, massive unemployment, inflation, widespread malnutrition, and lack of proper healthcare and good education for the masses.

Consequently, unlike Hitler, for whom the people of Germany ( except the Jews ) were for many years even prepared to give their lives, the defacto army rule in Pakistan will sooner or later become immensely unpopular in Pakistan, as it will neither give freedom nor better lives to the people of Pakistan.

For some time the people of Pakistan will lie low out of fear, but this situation cannot and will not continue indefinitely and endlessly. As an oft quoted adage says ” Whenever there is oppression there is resistance ”.

The great Indian freedom fighter Bal Gangadhar Tilak said when in 1908 Bengali revolutionaries threw bombs at some British officials, killing a few ” Violence, however deplorable, becomes inevitable, when rulers turn the nation into a prison, and commit horrendous atrocities on the people. Then the sound of the bomb spontaneously emerges as a warning to authorities that the people have reached the limit of their tolerance of oppression ”.

The people’s bombs are coming in Pakistan in the form of a people’s guerilla war against the Pakistan army, as in Vietnam and Afghanistan