The government of Pakistan has begun consultations on nomination of an ad hoc judge for the Kulbhushan Jadhav case being heard at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), local media reported on Tuesday. The move is intended to strengthen Pakistan’s legal team fighting the case at the ICJ.
Jadhav was sentenced to death by a military court in Pakistan on April 10 over terror and espionage charges. On India’s request, the ICJ had stayed his execution on May 18.
“During the tenure of deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif, former Supreme Court judge Khalilur Rehman Ramday was approached, but he declined the nomination,” the Express Tribune newspaper report said.
The report said that the attorney general’s office has forwarded names of senior lawyer Makhdoom Ali Khan, former chief justice Tassaduq Hussain Jilani and former prime minister of Jordon Awn Shawkat Al-Khasawneh to the PM’s office for consideration.
Makhdoom Ali Khan, considered as the favourite for the job, has experience in cases of international arbitration and had represented eight different countries in international courts.
The nomination of an ad hoc judge, according to sources, will be finalised after receiving inputs from the Foreign Office and the military establishment. In June, the ICJ had directed Indian authorities to file their pleadings in the case before September 13. Sources claimed the name of the ad hoc judge will be finalised next month, soon after the Indian side files its documents.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) representative Raheel Kamran Sheikh has called upon the government to seek the Parliament’s approval on the appointment of the ad hoc judge. Only one person has previously been appointed as ICJ judge in Pakistan’s history — former foreign minister Zafarullah Khan, who was appointed in 1954 and later became the president of the court. Yaqub Ali Khan and Sharifuddin Pirzada both served as ad hoc judges, as did Zafarullah.
