Daily Times

Indian secret service Research and Analysis Wing (RAW)’s senior operative Commander Kulbhoshan Jadhav has been sentenced to death by a Field General Court Martial of Pakistan Army on charges of spying for India and running a terror network. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has stayed the sentence till its hearing is completed.

Indian media is sanguine that it will be able to get Commander Jadhav acquitted at the ICJ. The question that arises is whether Pakistan has a case against the RAW terror monger?

The argument that the Pakistan counsel was incompetent before the ICJ does not hold. The services of the same legal expert had been acquired by Manmohan Singh’s administration to represent India successfully at Court back in 2004

Prima facie Pakistan has a strong case but the weak link in the chain is the civilian dispensation at Islamabad. For ten months after Commander Jadhav was nabbed by Pakistani sleuths from Balochistan, the government remained mum while the Pakistan Army kept the issue alive. During his address to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in September 2016, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had a grand opportunity to expose Indian machinations in Balochistan and unveil the master spy and terrorist Commander Jadhav at the UNGA podium but he kept mum.

Mr.Sartaj Aziz, Advisor on Foreign Affairs to the Prime Minister, told a full Senate chamber of Pakistan Parliament in December 2016: “The dossier on Indian spy Kulbhoshan Jadhav contained mere statements. It did not have any conclusive evidence.” Indian media has flaunted this quote in the face of every Pakistan participant in Indian TV talk shows on the Jadhav case.

During a recent seminar at GHQ on May 18, Pakistan Army Chief General Bajwa lamented that it was the Army that had to make arrangements for acquiring legal counsel to represent Pakistan during the hearing of the case at the ICJ. There are rumours that when Commander Kulbhoshan Jadhav was apprehended, the Prime Minister advised the Army Chief to let him go. Reportedly, the Army did not relent.

Pakistan’s foreign office spokesperson Nafees Zakaria stated, while talking to a local TV channel: “Jadhav continues to provide crucial intelligence with regard to recent terrorist attacks in Pakistan.” However, Zakaria did not elaborate on the details of the intelligence being provided by Jadhav. He was not expected to since it would be premature to reveal such crucial information, especially when Commander  Jadhav continues to sing like a canary.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s attorney general Ashtar Ausaf informed Pakistani media that Pakistan had enough evidence to prove that Jadhav was a “spy”. Ausaf said Pakistan has information on Jadhav that could not be disclosed due to security reasons.

“The evidence would only be presented before the ICJ once it resumes the hearing,” he said. Ausaf said the ICJ’s ‘procedural order’ of May 18 was neither Pakistan’s defeat nor India’s success and emphasized that when the case re-starts, “Pakistan would be on solid ground to win”.

Responding to a question regarding the constitution of a new legal team, Ausaf said that there were no plans to change the team. However, he said it would be “expanded”.

When asked why he did not represent Pakistan at the May 15 hearing at the ICJ, Ausaf claimed that he “knew prior to the judgment that the ICJ is going to announce the provisional order”.

Pakistan has been crying hoarse regarding Indian involvement in the insurgency in Balochistan and its nefarious attempts to sabotage the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) but its pleas of anguish have fallen on deaf ears. In the shape of Commander Kulbhoshan Jadhav, for the first time Pakistan has concrete evidence of Indian intervention in Pakistan. It has the wherewithal to expose India at the world forum. Kulbhoshan’s espionage and terror network extended to Balochistan, Afghanistan and Karachi. His recruits were plotting terror attacks, some of which were successful in wreaking havoc and causing massive loss of lives.

India has been visibly rattled by the incarceration of Jadhav and is bending backwards to have him released before he spilled the beans on India’s odious agenda to destabilize Pakistan. Fortunately for Pakistan, Jadhav has already pinpointed key points from his terror network, whose local operatives have been rounded up where RAW was recruiting, training and arming insurgents and terrorists. Equipped with this evidence, Pakistan needs to get its act together. Firstly, the government must be fully on board to pursue the case at ICJ, secondly it must beef up its legal team and ensure that they are armed with all the evidence. The bickering that Barrister Khawar Qureshi, who represented Pakistan at The Hague on May 18, was incompetent does not hold water. The services of the same legal expert had been acquired by Dr. Manmohan Singh’s government in 2004 to represent India successfully at the ICJ. What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

The writer is a retired Group Captain of PAF. He is a columnist, analyst and TV Talk show host, who has authored six books on current affairs, including three on China