Cutting the Knot

While Pakistan sharpens its knives to take on Salve and company in the ICJ, India needs to strengthen its diplomatic outreach to save Kulbhushan Jadhav.

- Rekha Dixit

On May 8, when India filed a petition at the International Court of Justice seeking a provisional stay on former naval commander Kulbhushan Jadhav’s hanging, Pakistan was caught unprepared. Pakistan floundered in gathering up a convincing defence in the tight one week deadline it got before the ICJ heard the case, while India had all its ammunition ready.

Pakistan, which retired hurt, is now determined to return to the arena with knives sharpened. Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, speaker of the Pakistan National Assembly and chair of the Parliamentary Committee for National Security, told parliamentarians that they would defend their position “forcefully’’, and that this time, attorney general Ashtar Ausaf Ali, too, would be part of the legal team. With India on the offensive in the first battle, it had the advantage of surprise. In the war ahead, however, India will have to second guess Pakistan’s moves. The ball is now in Pakistan’s court.

Pakistan is still mulling over what its best options are. Legal experts and politicians in Pakistan might bicker among themselves over what went wrong at the ICJ, but the country is putting together a defence that should not be taken lightly by India, however strong its own legal team may be. The bickering is for media consumption and political posturing. Behind this curtain, though, a legal team is being put together to examine every point through which Pakistan can salvage or avenge the face it lost. Some feel that an unprepared Pakistan lost the opportunity to get an ad hoc judge to the 11-member jury which passed the order, while India had a judge, Dalveer Bhandari, on the bench. Pakistan now has the chance to select its ad hoc nominee for the case.