ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan Anwar Zaheer Jamali declined on Friday an invitation to attend a three-day conference being held in New Delhi.
The CJP took the decision against the backdrop of heightened tensions between India and Pakistan, even though the Foreign Office had recommended that he could accept the invitation, provided the situation in India-held Kashmir did not deteriorate further. But citing recent developments, he decided otherwise.
Justice Jamali was invited to attend a global conference on the ‘National Initiative Towards Strengthening Arbitration and Enforcement in India’, scheduled to commence from Oct 21 in the Indian capital.
“Due to recent developments, it will not be possible for me to visit India,” the chief justice was quoted as saying by a source privy to the development.
This was the same event that Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Gautum Bambawale had invited the chief justice to attend when he called on the latter last July. But the formal invitation, which was routed through the Foreign Office, was received by Supreme Court registrar Arbab Arif.
The situation between India and Pakistan, which were engaged in a war of words over the killing of a prominent Kashmiri freedom fighter, escalated further when Indian forces claimed to have conducted surgical strikes on Pakistani side of the Line of Control on Sept 29, something Islamabad has forcefully rejected.
The conference is being organised by the National Institution for Transforming India, the Indian Ministry of Law and Justice, the National Legal Services Authority, International Centre for Alternative Dispute Resolution and Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion.
According to its agenda, the gathering aims to provide a platform to the Indian legal and policymaking fraternity to engage with the broader international commercial arbitration community.
Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur is chief patron of the conference, which is expected to be inaugurated by President Pranab Mukherjee.
Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2016
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