The Parliamentary Committee on National Security Tuesday expressed dissatisfaction over the government strategy to effectively fight the Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav's case in International Court of Justice (ICJ) and called for a proper representation of Pakistan to win the case.
The members of the committee, which met for an in-camera session with its Chairman National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq in the chair, posed some 'critical' questions to Attorney General Ashtar Ausaf Ali and Foreign Secretary Tehmina Junjua who briefed the panel on the ongoing trial of Jadhav in the ICJ. But the members, representing both the ruling alliance and the opposition parties, were dissatisfied with the briefing and the preparedness of the government's team to respond to critical questions asked by parliamentarians.
"The case was not prepared in a better way which caused disrespect to the sentiments of Pakistani people," said Sheikh Rashid Ahmad, member of the committee and head of Awami Muslim League (AML) while talking to reporters after the meeting. He said the government side was also not prepared to respond to the critical questions posed by the parliamentarians about Jadhav case.
Speaker National Assembly, while talking to reporters, said that Pakistan will appear in ICJ in Jadhav case with full preparation on June 08, 2017. He said that members of the committee discussed Kulbhushan Jadhav case beyond their political affiliation. "We need more explanations [from the government]...the members want to discuss the strategy and they raised very pertinent, legal and political questions. The parliamentarians want that Pakistan should have a proper representation and it should be a win situation for the country," he added.
He said that the attorney general and the foreign secretary responded to the queries posed by the parliamentarians but they were not satisfied with the explanations, adding all the members were concerned and they want that Pakistan must win this case. He said that it was agreed that next meeting of the committee will take place on May 30 ahead of the next hearing of the case in The Hague, adding legal preparations of the Jadhav case will be reviewed in the next meeting of the committee.
Though the meeting held in-camera, the difficulties of the government team at the meeting could be gauged from the fact that neither the attorney general nor the foreign secretary held any interaction with the media. At the conclusion of the meeting, Senator Sherry Rehman of Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP), who is also member of the committee, told the foreign secretary in an apologetic way, "Sorry for all the troubles today."
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