Newly reappointed Law Minister Farogh Naseem on Friday clarified on the floor of the National Assembly that Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav's sentence "had not been forgiven" and neither had the government given him an "NRO".
Naseem said an ordinance was needed to abide by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) judgement regarding Jadhav so India could be stopped from approaching the United Nations Security Council against Pakistan.
"India has already made preparations if we do not do this," Naseem said, adding that India "wanted that Pakistan not follow the ICJ judgement so that they could approach the UNSC for bringing all kinds of resolutions, sanctions and declare Pakistan a rogue state".
"We have to follow ICJ decisions as we are part of a comity of nations. If we had not promulgated this ordinance, then India could use Article 94 of UNSC and Article 60 of ICJ statute. We cut off India's hands with finality by bringing in this ordinance. Pakistan has done this responsibly," he added.
Naseem said he wanted to clarify the facts so the opposition could understand the context in which the government was tabling the ordinance in the National Assembly.
Holding up a copy of the ICJ judgement, the law minister said the court decided that Pakistan would have to grant [Jadhav] consular access and review and reconsider the case. "It placed an obligation on Pakistan. Paragraphs 144-148 of the judgement showed that ICJ placed the obligation on the country to enact a law for effective review and reconsideration [of the case]."
He said that this was why an ordinance was framed and promulgated, denying claims by the opposition that it was similar to the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO).
"An NRO is what Gen Musharraf promulgated to forgive sentences and suspend pending proceedings. We have not forgiven any sentence or stopped proceedings [against Jadhav]. We have to follow the ICJ's decision as a responsible state."
"ICJ has directed us to ensure effective review and reconsideration. As a responsible state we made a law. This ordinance states that Jadhav himself or a representative from the Indian embassy can file an appeal on his behalf," he said, terming it a "matter of national interest".
The law minister also clarified that the ordinance was not person specific. "It is for the future as well so that if a similar situation arises in the future, the concerned state does not file a case in the ICJ but approaches the Islamabad High Court instead."
"When Kulbushan Jadhav was arrested on March 3, 2016, the [then] federal government took a decision that consular access would not be given to him because he was guilty of espionage," Naseem reminded the house.
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