‘We were not prepared well enough’: Analysts, politicians on Jadhav case

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Thursday ordered Pakistan to halt the execution of Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav until a final decision in the proceedings.

Geo News spoke with lawyers, analysts, and politicians regarding the development.

Legal expert Rashid Aslam

Pakistan is not bound to follow the decision of the International Court of Justice on Kulbushan Jhadav`s execution as the court`s decision is ‘advisory’. We can raise the jurisdiction question again. ICJ is not a criminal court.  As many as three people were executed by the US contrary to the ICJ`s decision over it.

Barrister Farogh Naseem

The very first question which we need to ask is that why did we concede the compulsory jurisdiction of ICJ?I have requested that before the authorities to withdraw it before the decision. We shouldn’t have played in this arena. We should have played it at our pitch.

If we don’t follow the decision then the ICJ judge will write a letter to UN Secretary General for violation of signatories.  

Read More: Text of ICJ verdict in Kulbhushan Jadhav case

 Former Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri

Pakistan maintained that the international court doesn’t have jurisdiction over this case. The court rejected the argument. India has been successful in their demand to delay the execution, in light of the decision it appears that we have not been successful in making our case. The question here is what our Foreign Office was doing? And why our government was not prepared on the case.

Read More: ICJ stays execution of Indian spy Jadhav 

 Former Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi

We were not prepared well enough. Our government and Foreign Office was not expecting that the international court of Justice will proceed on this case so quickly. Indian demands have been approved in this case. 

Our case was on the jurisdiction which was rejected.   

When PM Nawaz`s case was presented in the court – high-level lawyers were on the court but when Pakistan`s case was in the international court, why we didn’t we use our best available resources. Did we not take this serious? If not then why we didn’t

Geo News Anchor Muneeb Farooq

If we take the argument that the US once defied the judgment of ICJ on the execution of a German national then we must remember the international standing of US and Pakistan respectively. We must be ready for the implications then.

 Indians were successful in convincing the court that there is urgency in Pakistan to execute Jadhav.

Director News - Geo News Rana Jawad

Pakistan calls itself a responsible state and is signatory all human rights documents. It was discussed in the foreign office that whether the state should go in the ICJ or not – the consensus reached that we should.  

Sherry Rehman:  I regret on how we have mishandled a won case. We have made a case weak by not raising it UN General Council. Now we should make an international legal team on the case immediately. Pakistan could have used an ad hoc judge which India did – why didn’t we make it.