AG to lead team that will meet ICJ president

ISLAMABAD: Attorney General Ashtar Ausaf Ali is set to lead Pakistan’s team to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on June 8 for a meeting of ‘agents’ of two parties in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case — India and Pakistan — with the president of the world court for a discussion on future proceedings in the case.

At the meeting in The Hague, agents of both the parties will decide dates for subsequent hearings in the case and submission of documents — the memorial and counter-memorial.

Pakistan will also indicate its intention to nominate an ad hoc judge for the case. The ICJ statutes provide for a state party to a case, which does not have a judge of its nationality on the bench, to choose a person to sit as an ad hoc judge in that case.

The country’s strategy in the case was discussed at a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security on Tuesday, which was chaired by National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq.

After the meeting, Mr Sadiq spoke to the media and said the attorney general had briefed the legislators about the government’s strategy for the case.

This was the committee’s second meeting on Jadhav’s case at the ICJ. The committee took up the issue after India was granted provisional measures by the ICJ — restraining Pakistan from executing Jadhav, who had been convicted of espionage and terrorism and sentenced to death by a military tribunal. India approached the ICJ on the pretext that it had been denied consular access to Jadhav.

The world court’s ruling in favour of India last month led to strong criticism of the government by the opposition, which accused it of not adequately contesting the Indian petition and challenging the court’s jurisdiction.

The parliamentary body will meet again on June 15 to continue its deliberations on the case. The attorney general will also brief the parliamentary committee on the June 8 meeting.

Committee members were not satisfied by the explanations given by the government’s legal team about the ICJ case at the last meeting.

On Tuesday, however, Mr Sadiq told the media that at least he was satisfied with the briefing given by the attorney general at the meeting. “He gave a detailed briefing as he had come well-prepared,” said the speaker, adding that he was satisfied that every possible thing was being done in the matter. Senator Sherry Rehman of the Pakistan Peoples Party, however, disputed what Mr Sadiq had said.

She claimed everything that had been shared with the committee members was ‘open source’ information while the replies were unsatisfactory.

Discussing her assessment of the case strategy shared by the attorney general, Ms Rehman said, “They have committed a lot of mistakes.”

Source: Dawn News