Islamabad: Pakistan had a very tough legislative business day on Thursday when the government pushed through 21 legislations including the right to appeal of Indian citizen Kulbushan Jhadav. The opposition had raised the issue of quorum in the house for the passage of the bills but was defeated when physical voting was carried out by Speaker Asad Qaiser. The house was dominated by cries over the passage of the bill that Pakistan's opposition sees as favouring India's jailed citizen Jhadav.
Some of the opposition members shouted slogans saying that Pakistan was being betrayed and traitors were in the house. War of words also erupted between that the opposition and the treasury benches after which the opposition staged a walkout of the proceedings after the speaker went ahead with the passage of the Bills. Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz and Pakistan People's party later embroiled themselves in a bitter war of words with the government.
51-year-old Kulbhushan Jhadav is a retired Indian Naval officer who was sentenced by a Pakistan military court to death on charges of espionage and terrorism. India had repeatedly asked for consular access to Kulbhushan Jhadav and decided to take the matter to the International Court of Justice(ICJ) at Hague. Lawyer Harish Salve had presented India's case at the ICJ after which the court ruled that consular access should be given to the Jhadav and directed the assembly to give effective review and reconsideration.
A 16-member bench headed by President of the Court, Judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf, by 15-1 votes ordered Pakistan in 2019 to undertake an "effective review and reconsideration" of the conviction and sentence of Jadhav and also to grant consular access to India without further delay. In its 42-page order, the world court while rejecting Pakistan's objection to the admissibility of the Indian application in the case, held that "a continued stay of execution constitutes an indispensable condition for the effective review" of the sentence of Jadhav.
The current bill passed in the National Assembly of Pakistan "International Court of Justice (Review & Re-consideration) Ordinance, 2020" gives the right to appeal to Kulbhusan Yadav according to the directives of the ICJ.
