–Bilawal demands new accountability institution which can hold govt, Opp, judiciary and military accountable
–PML-N’s Asif urges NA not to approve ordinance ‘as it was against national respect and honour’
–PTI’s Shireen Mazari says Pakistan ‘should never have gone to the ICJ in the first place’
ISLAMABAD: The joint opposition staged a walkout during a National Assembly session on Thursday protesting the International Court of Justice (Review and Reconsideration) Ordinance 2020 promulgated by the federal government in May in view of the ICJ judgement pertaining to the case of Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav.
The government presented the ordinance before the Lower House amid backlash from the opposition benches. The assembly session ended as Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari pointed out the lack of quorum while concluding his speech. The quorum was found incomplete and the session was deferred.
During his speech, Bilawal demanded that a new accountability institution be set up which can hold the government, the opposition, the judiciary and the military accountable. He maintained that his conscience would not permit him to support the ordinance.
After pointing out the lack of quorum, Bilawal walked out of the session at which the government aisle erupted with slogans calling him back to the lower house. Government lawmakers shouted ‘Bilawal ko wapis bolayein, bachay ko bolayein [Call Bilawal back, call the child back]’.
Earlier, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Khawaja Asif, in his speech, asked why the government was “facilitating a terrorist” who had confessed to his role in promoting unrest and terrorism in Pakistan.
“A terrorist who has confessed to [being involved in] terrorism in our country, against whom we have completed legal proceedings — what has happened now that we are formally legislating to facilitate him?
“When we [PML-N] were in the government, Kulbhushan was a slur used against us. It was said that Nawaz Sharif and we [PML-N] were appeasing India,” he said. “Who is appeasing India today?” he thundered.
Asif expressed “very, very strong exceptions” to the ordinance, urging members not to pass the law as it was “against national respect and honour”.
“What concession have they [India] given to you? Tell us,” Asif demanded. “We were taunted, now this government and this prime minister must tell us why he is stooping so low in front of India?”
Terming the move as “intolerable and unacceptable”, the PML-N leader said the government was caving in to international pressure.
In response to Asif’s speech, Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari said that the country “should never have gone to the ICJ in the first place” and recalled that both Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) had opposed the PML-N government’s decision to do so.
“From the first day, we had said that it was wrong of the then government [to go to ICJ] and it was not just our party’s stance, it was the PPP’s as well,” she said.
The minister said that during its tenure, the PML-N had written a letter to the ICJ declaring that the country was restricting the international court’s jurisdiction. Despite that letter, she said, the PML-N government decided to contest the case in the ICJ after India took the case there.
She pointed out that PPP and PTI had raised objections over the then government’s decision to contest the case as “there was no reason to do so”. “If one country does not accept the ICJ’s [jurisdiction], the case is not heard,” she said.
She recalled that PPP Senator Sherry Rehman and Naveed Qamar were also part of a joint parliamentary committee meeting in which the matter was discussed.
Mazari also criticised the PML-N’s move to send a Grade 20 Foreign Office official to represent Pakistan in the international judicial body. “Now that you have accepted their jurisdiction and they have passed a verdict, we will have to implement it […] Why did you go to the ICJ then?”
The minister lamented that the country was now “stuck with an ICJ decision because of their [PML-N’s] shortcomings”.
“Factually, they have imposed this difficulty on our country […] We should never have gone to the ICJ, they did the wrong thing,” Mazari declared.
In his speech, PPP chief Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari criticised the government for passing the ordinance in May “without telling anyone” even though both the houses were in session during June. He pointed out that the rules and laws stated that an ordinance must be presented in Parliament “as soon as possible” if it is promulgated when the house is in session.
The PPP leader lamented that the government had not taken the opposition in confidence and had only presented the ordinance today after the matter was raised in Senate and discussed by him during a press conference.
Responding to Mazari’s speech, Bilawal said: “If you did not accept the jurisdiction of international courts, it does not mean that you grant an NRO [to Jadhav] through Pakistan’s law.”
He recalled that the Indian pilot Abhinandan, who was captured after his plane was shot down by the Pakistan Air Force in Azad Jammu and Kashmir last year, was “offered tea and sent back quickly”.
“And now, Kulbhushan Jadhav who admitted to spying and committing terror offences in Pakistan, is being granted an NRO by Imran Khan.”
The PPP chief said that the government had “already given an NRO” to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan’s terrorist Ehsanullah Ehsan, who had admitted his role in the Army Public School massacre that took place in 2014. The interior minister had earlier this year admitted that Ehsan had escaped from Pakistan’s custody.
Concluding his speech, the PPP chairman said that the “opposition’s conscience does not allow” to let the session continue with the ordinance on its agenda and pointed out quorum.
The speaker adjourned proceedings until the quorum was complete.
