PPP accuses PTI govt of ‘facilitating’ Indian spy through 'secret ordinance'

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has said that the PTI-led government “secretly” introduced an ordinance in parliament to facilitate Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav.

“The International Court of Justice Review and Reconciliation Ordinance has secretly been introduced by this selected government to facilitate the Indian spy without taking anyone including opposition parties onboard,” he said while holding a press conference in Sukkur on Friday.

Jadhav, a serving commander in the Indian Navy and working for the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), was arrested on March 3, 2016 in Balochistan on charges of espionage, and condemned to death by a military court the following year.

In view of the ICJ judgement in July last year, the federal government had promulgated the International Court of Justice (Review and Reconsideration) Ordinance, 2020 on May 20 for an effective review of the case.

Indian officials left without hearing Jadhav

The ordinance read that a foreign national -- either themselves or through their authorised representative or through a consular officer of mission of their country -- might file a petition before a high court for a review and reconsideration in terms of Section 3 of an order of conviction/sentence of a military court operating under the Army Act 1952.

Bilawal said the enactment of Ordinance is illegal and unconstitutional after the expiry of deadline. “According to my information the Indian spy has refused to avail the concessions offered in the ordinance.”

He said among all of the incumbent government’s catastrophic decisions, the latest one is “unprecedented”.

“If there was any compulsion to pass the ordinance then the people of the country and the opposition parties should have been consulted on this important matter,” the PPP leader said.

On Thursday, Pakistan had provided consular access to Commander Jadhav for the second time at the Indian request but the Indian diplomats left the meeting without hearing the naval officer-turned-RAW agent, compelling Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi to conclude that New Delhi was never interested in the consular access.

“Two consular officers of the Indian High Commission in Islamabad were provided unimpeded and uninterrupted consular access to Commander Jadhav at 1500 hours,” said a statement issued by the Foreign Office.

Previously, Pakistan provided the consular access on September 2, 2019 under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR) 1963. “The mother and wife of Commander Jadhav were also allowed to meet him on 25 December 2017,” the statement added.