During the era of Ronald Reagan, Nicaragua filed a case in International Court of Justice (ICJ) against United States for their support to Contras, a right wing group. ICJ ruled in favor of Nicaragua and held that United States has violated the international law by supporting the Contras in their rebellion against the Nicaraguan government. The United States rejected the courts ruling and also blocked the decision through Security Council resulting in no compensation for Nicaragua.
Moreover, India has a history of rejecting United Nations resolutions on Kashmir dispute. Furthermore, ICJ decided in favor of Philippines under the United Nations Convention on Law of Sea (UNCLOS) against China and stated that Beijing’s claim based on nine dash-line has no legal value. China rejected the ruling and released her own white paper in which she reiterated her stance on South China Sea.
Pakistan like United States challenged the jurisdiction of ICJ. But ICJ in their verdict rejected Pakistani application and stated that ICJ has jurisdiction in this case. Pakistan like United States can also refuse to take part in further proceedings and rejects ICJ’s decision. But the international repercussions for Pakistan will be far more than it were for the United States.
Khulbushan Jadhav was apprehended from Balochistan on March 3, 2016. Later on, Jadhav in a rare video released by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) confessed to his crimes and affiliation with Research Analysis Wing (RAW). Experts believe that ICJ’s verdict is a temporary success of New Delhi.
Foreign Office spokesperson Nafees Zakaria stated that Pakistan had challenged the authority of ICJ after consulting with all institutions and agencies. "No institution can be party to Pakistan's national security,” he said. The response is clear and precise. Pakistan will not compromise on national security. Many experts criticized the decision of ICJ, and termed it as poor judgment while others believed that the verdict was the result of Indian influence in international community.
Pakistani authorities need to sit and devise a proper strategy and should also highlight Indian atrocities in the disputed region of Kashmir. New Delhi’s blatant aggression in Kashmir to tackle growing freedom fighters is clearly visible and Islamabad has a strong evidence in this regard. According to Ahmed Bilal Sufi, an expert on international law, “ICJ is not a court of appeal and neither can it set aside the decision of Field Marshall court of Pakistan Army.”
Many analysts believe that the ball is still in Pakistan’s court if they pursue their case efficiently. Critics say that Islamabad should have appointed an ad-hoc Judge. Besides this, Pakistan’s lawyer did not use his time completely and stopped his arguments after 40 minutes while the time was 90 minutes. The verdict has given India a soft victory, and Indians are proactively pursuing ICJ’s decision on social media and various forums as a diplomatic victory against Islamabad.
General Bajwa recently in his address to heads of the various institutes at General Headquarters said that the enemy is active on social media to malign Pakistan army. He further said that it is not the sole responsibility of the Army to face all challenges and all institutions needs to work together to tackle the challenges the country is facing.
Poor governance on the civilian front has also created a significant power vacuum which has been filled by Army. The failure of Sindh Police and administration resulted in the Rangers taking over security duties in Karachi. The failure of civilian administration in Balochistan resulted in deployment of FC across the province. The failure of government in implementation of long pledged Fata reforms has resulted in the permanent deployment of Army in region. Furthermore, the decision of ICJ reflects the lack of seriousness of the PML-N government on the foreign policy front.
Now it is the time for all institutions to take up their respective responsibilities and come up with a concrete plan to confront all the challenges the country is facing. Political parties are targeting the government and its institutions for not properly handling the case. The political parties should not play politics on the issue of national security.