Pak Speaker calls for unity on Jadhav
Don’t do politics over a terrorist, says Sadiq
The government of Pakistan and its army will jointly fight the Kulbhushan Jadhav case at the International Court of Justice, the speaker of the country’s parliament said on Sunday.
It is “time to be united instead of doing politics on the issue of a terrorist,” National Assembly speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq said while talking to media persons in Lahore.
Relations between the Pakistani military and civilian establishment have been uneasy recently, with fissures appearing over the Panama Papers revelations and prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s meeting with Indian steel tycoon Sajjan Jindal — a development that was part of track-two diplomacy, Sharif was reported to have told the army.
The Opposition has slammed the Pakistan government’s handling of the Jadhav case at the ICJ.
The legal points of the case should be discussed but there should be no politics on the issue, he said, according to a report by state-run Radio Pakistan.
The speaker also said Pakistan would not take any dictation on the issue and will take a decision as per its interests.
This was the same message given earlier by several government officials.
On Saturday, Pakistan's advisor to the PM on foreign affairs said the choice of lawyer from Pakistan’s side had been done by consensus of all quarters concerned.
In this, say analysts, he also meant the Pakistan army.
Sartaj Aziz also said the ICJ had not given any ruling on providing consular access to Jadhav. “There was no operative order on consular access,” he said.
Interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said Jadhav’s case would be taken to its “logical conclusion” according to Pakistan’s Constitution and laws.
Pakistan’s stance at the ICJ would be based along these lines, he told reporters.
Amid criticism of Pakistan’s legal team after the ICJ stayed Jadhav’s execution on Thursday, attorney general Ashtar Ausaf Ali said he would represent the country in future hearings at The Hague-based court.
The ICJ ordered Pakistan to stay Jadhav’s execution over allegations of spying until its final decision on India’s petition to annul his death sentence. It rejected Pakistan’s argument that it had no jurisdiction in the matter and acknowledged the urgency of Jadhav’s case.
Chiding the Pakistan media for presenting a “wrong impression of the case”, Aziz said India’s perceived victory was “like air in a bubble”.
The government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is under pressure over the ICJ order, with many quarters insisting the choice of legal team and its tactics were wrong.
Syed Khursheed Shah, the Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly, described the order as a setback and said the government’s negligence is evident.