Kulbhushan Jadhav

NEW DELHI: First, a Pakistan military court tried, convicted and sentenced, and now it appears the country's powerful army will "jointly fight" the Indian national's case with its government in the International Court of Justice ICJ ), Pakistan state radio reported a top ruling politician as saying.What the politician meant by "jointly" wasn't explained in Radio Pakistan's article.Of course, it is by no means a secret that the Pakistan military has, arguably, an equal say as the civilian government in national matters there. What's striking, though, is that a ruling party politician made this statement publicly, that too at a time when tensions are running high between the Nawaz Sharif civilian government and the Pakistan army.Pakistan has seen military rule via coups as many as three times since 1947."Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq says the government and Pakistan Army will jointly fight the case of Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav " in the ICJ, reported Radio Pakistan quoting a speech the politician made yesterday.In fact, it wasn't state media alone that reported this. Pakistan's The Nation newspaper, said to be close to the establishment - that could mean the civilian government or the army - also reported Sadiq as saying the same thing about the military joining the ICJ case."It is time to be united," Sadiq said in an address to his parliamentary constituency yesterday. And it was clear from the context that he was talking about the civilian government and the army being "united".Referring to Jadhav, whom Sadiq called a terrorist, he said politics shouldn't be played "on the issue of a terrorist". He also criticized what he described as a "trend" of harming the national interest for the sake of scoring political gains."Anything said by the politicians must always safeguard the national interests," he said. "We have already suffered much in the past" because of "this trend of causing damage to the national interest in order to protect the personal" interest of some, said Sadiq."He (Sadiq) said legal points should be discussed but there should be no politics on the issue of Kulbhushan Jadhav," wrote Radio Pakistan in its report.Two days after India filed a plea at the ICJ requesting it grant a temporary stay on Pakistan executing Jadhav, Pakistan's army chief Qamar Bajwa met with Sharif."If the ICJ requests Pakistan anything about Jadhav, then the government of Pakistan will respond to it at an appropriate level," said Pakistan army spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor, after that meeting with Sharif.What he didn't say, at least not explicitly, was that the the army would get directly involved, although now it appears clear that's what he likely meant.Pakistan says it arrested Jadhav last year from Balochistan, while India says Pakistan kidnapped the former naval officer from Iran, where he'd gone to conduct business. Last month, a Pakistani military court sentenced Jadhav to death.India took the case to the ICJ asking for a stay on that execution, anchoring its arguments on the fact that Pakistan violated the Vienna Convention.Last week, the ICJ stayed Jadhav's execution pending its verdict in the case.