The government has decided to appoint former Chief Justice of Pakistan Tassaduq Jilani as ad-hoc judge of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case.
According to sources, the government has completed consultation with all stakeholders regarding the appointment of the former CJP.
The Law Ministry has sent a summary to the prime minister, which is likely to be approved soon.
Under Article 13 of the International Court of Justice, Pakistan will send its ad-hoc judge.
He is a cousin of former foreign secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani. The team of lawyers to defend Pakistan’s side was led by Justice Khawar Qureshi before.
Justice Jillani was nominated to the Lahore High Court bench by former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in 1990s. He also authored the Supreme Court’s judicial anthem and was among those SC judges who had refused to take oath under the PCO on November 3, 2007. His decisions as CJP on the rights of religious minorities were compared to the outlawing of racial segregation in the United States.
Regarding the appointment of the new ad-hoc judge for the case, Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) representative Raheel Kamran Sheikh called the federal government to seek parliament’s support on it.
Earlier on Friday, a high-level meeting was held in Pakistan, along with Attorney General (AG) Ashtar Ausaf Ali, to discuss the further strategy and responses to India’s 22-page report submitted before the ICJ. In the meeting, representatives of the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Law and Justice, as well as other stakeholders, were present.
The Pakistan Army on Thursday said that it is close to a decision on Jadhav’s mercy petition and has good news for the people of Pakistan.