THE HAGUE: Pakistan today [June 4] asked the International Court here to take “interim measures of protection” against India “relating to the continued detention of over 90,000 Pakistani prisoners of war and civilian internees and the threatened transfer of 195 persons to Bangladesh for the purpose of trial for alleged acts of genocide.”

India did not attend the hearings … at the Peace Palace. India’s view is that there is “no legal basis whatsoever for the jurisdiction of the Court to deal with this dispute”. Pakistan said it made its request in accordance with Article 41 of the Statute of the International Court. … The Pakistan Attorney-General Yahya Bakhtiar presented his country’s case. … Pakistan is asking the World Court for an order that the detainees, taken prisoner by India in the 1971 conflict, should not be transferred to Bangladesh pending a judgement of the Court. — News agencies

[Meanwhile, as reported by news agencies from Lahore,] Khan Abdul Wali Khan, chief of the National Awami Party, said … that his party would have no difference with the Government provided the latter enforced the Constitution immediately in letter and spirit and guaranteed the supremacy of law and ethical values in national politics.

Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2023