Responding to Pakistan's refusal to abide by the International Court of Justice's (ICJ) verdict on the execution of alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav, former foreign secretary Salman Haider on Sunday said by doing so, Islamabad would have to pay the price in terms of global opinion.
"It's up to Pakistan to decide whether or not they want to abide by it; they can't be compelled. But if Pakistan or any other country deliberately flouts the ICJ's finding and decision, it will have to pay the price in terms of global opinion, a sense of putting itself out of court, looking as it is not prepared to abide by the international norms of the contract," Haider told ANI.
He continued that to rehear the matter or not is the ICJ's decision, adding that it can only be suspected that the decision of the court would remain intact as it has been taken after due consideration.
"The sense of the judgment that ICJ has given is that the treatment of Kulbhushan should be according to the international requirement which includes consular access," he said.
Earlier on Saturday, advisor to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz asserted that Jadhav cannot be acquitted by the ICJ and his punishment will be in accordance with domestic laws.
He argued that Indian rant of victory following the ICJ's stay at the execution of Jadhav was false because the final verdict was yet to come. "The ICJ gave no verdict regarding consul access", he added.
Aziz said India had made a mistake by going to the ICJ as it paved the way for Pakistan to raise the matter of humanitarian violations in Kashmir.
While answering to the question as to why Pakistan moved the ICJ on the Kulbhushan Jadhav matter, he said Pakistan was a member state of the United Nations and the decision was taken after consultation.
