PAK TO CHOOSE ADHOC JUDGE FOR ICJ PANEL IN JADHAV CASE

Pakistan government has begun consultations on nominating an ad-hoc judge to the panel of the International Court of Justice hearing the Kulbhushan Jadhav case, according to a media report.

Government functionaries are considering several candidates, including former chief justice Tassaduq Hussain Jilani and former Jordanian premier Awn Shawkat Al-Khasawneh, The Express Tribune reported.

During the tenure of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, former Supreme Court judge Khalilur Rehman Ramday was approached for the position but he declined the nomination.

The attorney general for Pakistan’s office has now recommended the names of senior lawyer Makhdoom Ali Khan, Jilani and Al-Khasawneh to the Prime Minister’s secretariat for the nomination of the ad-hoc judge.

Khan, seen as the favourite for the job, has experience in international arbitration cases as he has represented eight countries in international courts. Al-Khasawneh served as an ICJ judge for more than a decade. Only one person has previously been appointed as an ICJ judge in Pakistan’s history – former foreign minister Zafarullah Khan, who was appointed in 1954 and later became president of the court.

Leading lawyers Yaqub Ali Khan and Sharifuddin Pirzada served as ad-hoc judges, as did Zafarullah Khan.