THIS refers to reports, ‘Pakistan may take Kashmir to ICJ: Indian jurist’ (May 21), and ‘China Sea tribunal can haunt India on J & K, warns BJP’s Swamy’ (July 14, 2016).

In the first one, a former judge of the Indian Supreme Court, Markandey Katju, has said India’s decision to approach the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case is ‘a serious mistake’ on New Delhi’s part. He opined that the reason why Pakistan did not seriously object to the question of jurisdiction was because it might benefit Islamabad on other fronts.

“Now it is certain that Pakistan will approach the ICJ for deciding the Kashmir dispute … Pakistan must be very happy that we went to the ICJ over a single individual’s fate, as now they can raise all kinds of issues, particularly Kashmir, in international fora, to which we had always objected… by going to the ICJ, we may have opened up Pandora’s box,” Mr Katju said.

In the second story, Subramaniam Swamy, a senior member of India’s ruling party BJP, had warned the government not to unconditionally support the UN-backed tribunal’s ruling that China has no legal basis to its claims of ‘historic rights’ to islands in the South China Sea.

He said this could go against India if the tribunal turns its gaze on Jammu and Kashmir.

Thus, India’s involvement in the ICJ in Jadhav’s case may be an opportunity for Pakistan to take the Kashmir issue there. However, the pros and cons of the move should be weighed carefully by our experts.

If Nawaz Sharif’s government is able to get a favourable decision on Kashmir from the ICJ, he would become extremely popular and be able to rule over the country forever!

Q. Iqbal Karachi

(2)

THIS refers to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) order on the Kulbhushan Jadhav case. This is another debacle.

India played its cards well. One is left with no option but to praise the Indian lawyer, who charged just one Indian rupee for the case, while the lawyer representing Pakistan, a Pakistani British, charged 500,000 British pounds.

Why wasn’t a Pakistani legal expert at international law hired? For the last four years, the ship of our foreign office has been tossing in high seas without a captain.

Second-tier officers, efficient and well-trained they may be, can’t take the command of the ship because of not possessing experience. The prime minister, who is also foreign minister, is busy in taking care of other matters. Neglecting the foreign affairs is natural.

Why is our prime minister hesitating to appoint a foreign minister?

Aamir Aqil Lahore

Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2017