Pakistan’s federal government has strongly denied promulgating any secret ordinance to give Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav reprieve. The official statement rubbished the claims made by the politicians and journalists – including Chairman PPP, Bilawal Zardari Bhutto. No arrangements are underway to facilitate or release Kulbhushan Jadhav, the statement said.
جاسوسی انداز سے عمران حکومت کا ۲ ماہ پہلے “کل بھوشن آڈیننس“ کا اجرا ۔ گزٹ میں اندراج ۔نہ سپیکر، سینٹ چیرمین ممبران، میڈیا اور عوام کو خبر دی۔ وزیر اعظم، کابینہ کے ok کے بغیر صدر آرڈیننس جاری نہیں کر سکتا۔ وہاں بھی خاموشی۔ قوم سے چھپانے کی اتنی پلاننگ۔ ایک انڈین جاسوس کے لیے؟واہ!
— Syed Talat Hussain (@TalatHussain12) July 17, 2020
“The spokesperson of the Ministry of Law and Justice has denied the allegations that secretly an ordinance with a view to give reprieve to the Indian Commander Kulbhushan Sudhir Jadhav was promulgated by the federal government, without taking the country or the Parliament into confidence with a malafide intent,” read a statement issued by the Ministry of Law and Justice.
Ordinance is to facilitate Kulbhushan: Bilawal
The statement comes a day after Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari accused the government of promulgating an ordinance to facilitate Jadhav. “What is this secret Kulbhushan Jadhav ordinance introduced by our selected government without taking the country or parliament into confidence,” he had written.
پی ٹی آئی حکومت نے خفیہ آرڈیننس کا اجراء کرکے کلبھوشن یادو کو ریلیف فراہم کرنے کی کوشش کی، چیئرمین بلاول بھٹو زرداری کا حکومت سے وضاحت کا مطالبہ@BBhuttoZardari https://t.co/HqNdDzukAK
— PPP (@MediaCellPPP) July 17, 2020
According to a press release issued by the Law and Justice Ministry, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) had instructed Pakistan in its July, 2019 detailed judgement to provide Commander Jadhav an “effective review and reconsideration of the conviction and sentence”.
Indian Navy officer Jadhav was arrested on charges of espionage in Balochistan in March 2016 and sentenced to death by a military court a year later.
Clarifying that nobody is going to release Kulbhushan Jadhav? the statement said that: “In order to comply with the directions of the ICJ, the International Court of Justice (Review and Reconsideration) Ordinance, 2020 was promulgated to provide an effective mechanism of review and reconsideration to Commander Jadhav, of Pakistan’s own choice.”
Read More: How is India destabilizing Pakistan?
The press release said that the Article 89 of Pakistan’s Constitution allows the president to promulgate any ordinance when the parliament is not is session.
Hanging Kulbhushan not in Pakistan’s strategic interest?
While most analysts do not take Bilawal’s statement seriously as they consider it usual politics of the opposition but how Kulbhushan’s case finally end is on many minds. Prominent TV Anchor and blogger, Moeed Pirzada, recently argued in a well researched blog that Indian RAW and Naval Officer, Kulbhushan Jadhav, basically represents a war of narratives between India and Pakistan.
India had always accused Pakistan of using terrorism against India, and Pakistan had talked of Indian support to insurgencies and Taliban inside Pakistan – without much impact. However now Pakistan has a solid narrative in the form of Commander Kulbhushan Jadhav.
Hanging or executing Jadhav defeats the purpose. So Pirzada argued that Indian rush to ICJ on the plea that Jadhav could be hanged was preposterous as it was never in Pakistan’s interest. India might have expected greater relief from ICJ given the international court’s historic sympathies for Indian positions. ICJ trial however helped Pakistan to internationalise the issue.
Having said that, Pirzada, in his vlog, argues that in the end Pakistan’s government will also like to get some reprieve for Kulbhushan – if not from High Court, then Supreme Court. Because it will like to pardon and exchange Indian officer at some stage as per the practice in Inter-state matters.
RAW had also planned chaos in Gilgit Baltistan
In 2019, the security forces successfully foiled attempts to spread terrorism and violence in Gilgit, Baltistan, and busted another network of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) involved in carrying out terrorist and extremist activities in Pakistan. But the RAW supports Baloch insurgents has already been in the news.
Modi has officially accepted india role in destabilizing Pakistan. We should not expect any favour from him now
— Siraj ul Haq (@SirajOfficial) June 9, 2015
According to details, the intelligence agencies had arrested at least 14 members of the nationalist organisation, Balawaristan National Front (Hameed Group), and seized weapons and explosive materials from their possession. It is also reported that the leaders of the anti-Pakistan group have also surrendered, who were given the task to sabotage the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Media reports suggest that the RAW took BNF chairman, Abdul Hameed Khan, to India in 1999 and was given a three-star apartment in Dehli, where his family and three sons were shifted. RAW also provided identification proofs and facilities to Khan for starting a business in India, while his sons had been given expensive education in different schools and colleges in India and Europe.
Similarly, four years ago, Pakistan arrested Kulbhushan Yadav, who is a serving naval office of India, for destabilizing Pakistan through sponsoring Baloch insurgents. In a video, Commander Kulbhushan Yadav, while admitting his role in terror-related activities in Pakistan has said; “My purpose was to hold meetings with the Baloch insurgents and carry out activities with their collaboration. These activities have been of criminal nature, leading to the killing of or maiming of Pakistani citizens.”
He explicitly narrated that Indian intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), is involved in a separatist movement in Pakistan. “I realise during this process that RAW is involved in some activities related to the Baloch liberation movement within Pakistan and the region around it”, he clarified.
Read More: UNSC condemns attack on PSX: Did India try blocking this?
Dr Zafar Nawaz Jaspal, Associate Professor, School of Politics and International Relations, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, opines that “The RAW and its allies sponsored terrorist strike in Balochistan. They have carefully crafted a strategy to ignite the sectarian divide in Quetta to spoil the societal and religious harmony among the people of the area and also terrorise the investors, who have been contemplating investing in Balochistan due to the development of Gwadar city’s port and the inauguration of an international airport”
Mr Jaspal also noted that “Nonetheless, it is an open secret that Indian intelligence agency, RAW has been sponsoring and conducting terrorist activities in Pakistan particularly at the sites of CPEC to impede the developmental work and frustrate the investors. It had crafted a terrorist network in Balochistan to obstruct the construction of CPEC infrastructure. On 03 March 2016, during a counter-intelligence operation, the Pakistani law enforcement agencies arrested RAW’s chief operator, a serving commander in the Indian Navy Kulbhushan Yadav, managing terrorist activities in Balochistan.”
Nawaz Sharif never mentioned Kulbhushan?
Some analysts slam Pakistan’s political elite for their lack of will and understanding of international politics to develop a narrative on the basis of hard facts in the form of Commando Kulbhushan to prove India-sponsored terrorism in the country. More than 8o thousand people have been killed in terrorist attacks in Pakistan and there has been direct or indirect involvement of India in all these.
Nawaz Sharif, former Prime Minister of Pakistan, is often criticized for not even being able to name Kulbhushan at international forums. Dr Moeed Pirzada, of 92 News, three years ago, kept on asking to formally plead the case of Pakistan before the international community where Indian intellectuals and scholars, along with Indian media, have established a link between terror and Pakistan.
Read More: Two Indian spies arrested from Gilgit: Is India planning a false flag operation?
The incumbent government, of PM Imran Khan, has now a special focus on such cases and Foreign Minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, also addressed the United Nations General Assembly and mentioned the case of Kulbhushan, and explain how is India destabilising Pakistan. There is no question about if Pakistan was going to release Kulbhushan Jadhav. Experts maintain that Pakistan needs to develop a discourse on an international stage while basing its arguments on these hard facts to expose the role of India in the destabilization of Pakistan.