Pak Speaker calls for unity on Jadhav

Don’t do politics over a terrorist, says Sadiq

The government of Pakistan and its army will jointly fight the Kulbhushan Jadhav case at the International Court of Justice, the speaker of the country’s parliament said on Sunday.

It is “time to be united instead of doing politics on the issue of a terrorist,” National Assembly speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq said while talking to media persons in Lahore.

Relations between the Pakistani military and civilian establishment have been uneasy recently, with fissures appearing over the Panama Papers revelations and prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s meeting with Indian steel tycoon Sajjan Jindal — a development that was part of track-two diplomacy, Sharif was reported to have told the army.

The Opposition has slammed the Pakistan government’s

handling of the Jadhav case at the ICJ. The legal points of the case should be discussed but there should be no politics on the issue, he said, according to a report by state-run Radio Pakistan.

The speaker also said Pakistan would not take any dictation on the issue and will take a

decision as per its interests.

This was the same message given earlier by several government officials.

On Saturday, Pakistan's advisor to the PM on foreign affairs said the choice of lawyer from Pakistan’s side had been done by consensus of all quarters concerned.