Daily Times

The federal government on Monday tabled the International Court of Justice (Review and Reconsideration) Ordinance, 2020, in the National Assembly for approval, a private TV channel reported.

Adviser to the Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan presented the bill in the assembly.

The ordinance had sparked a heated debate between the opposition and the ruling party, with the former calling it an NRO for the Indian spy and the latter saying that they were bound by the ICJ’s jurisdiction. The ordinance will have overriding effect. Its provisions shall have effect notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in any law for the time being in force, including the Pakistan Army Act, 1952.

The government on July 22 had approached the Islamabad High Court to appoint a legal representative for the Indian spy. The move was made in the light of the International Court of Justice’s July 17, 2019 decision, following which the International Court of Justice (Review and Reconsideration) Ordinance, 2020 was enacted to implement the court’s verdict. The federation, through the defense secretary and the Judge Advocate General (JAG) branch of General Headquarters (GHQ), had been made a party in the petition filed by the Ministry of Law and Justice.

A few days earlier, Pakistan had offered to provide third consular access to Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav. A spokesperson of the Foreign Office had said that Islamabad had informed New Delhi about the decision, adding that Pakistan had also suggested providing the consular access without the presence of the security personnel. The development followed a day after Pakistan provided the second consular access to Jadhav. “Two consular officers of the Indian High Commission in Islamabad were provided unimpeded and uninterrupted consular access to Commander Jadhav at 1500 hours,” according to a Foreign Office statement issued on the occasion. However, late that evening, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had said that two officials from the Indian High commission in Islamabad – who had been provided consular access – left without hearing the Indian spy out. In a statement, he had said that consular access was given according to the terms agreed upon. “India’s ill intentions have come to light. They didn’t want consular access. [Jhadav] kept asking the Indian diplomats to talk to him and they left,” he had said. Calling the behaviour of the officials ‘astonishing’, Qureshi had questioned that if Indian diplomats didn’t want to talk to Jadhav, why did they ask for consular access. “They had objected to the glass that had been placed in the middle so we removed it. They had also objected to audio and video recordings so that was also not done. We fulfilled all their requests, but still they left.” he had said.

Last year, Jadhav was given first consular access under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations 1963 on September 2. Earlier, the mother and wife of Commander Jadhav were also allowed to meet him on December 25, 2017, as a humanitarian gesture.

Jadhav – a serving commander of the Indian Navy associated with Indian spy agency Research and Analysis Wing – was arrested on March 3, 2016, from Balochistan on allegations of espionage and terrorism. In his trial at a military court after his arrest, Jadhav had confessed to his involvement in terrorist plots in Pakistan. He was subsequently sentenced to death in 2017. However, India insisted that Jadhav was not a spy and said he was kidnapped from Iran. On April 10, 2017, Army Chief Gen Qamar Bajwa endorsed the death penalty for Jadhav.