Lawfare and Pakistan, Farogh Naseem addresses seminar

July 15, 2021: Addressing a seminar on ‘Lawfare and Pakistan’ on Wednesday, the federal minister lamented that lawfare served as a legitimate and at times illegitimate tool as a weapon to force nations to surrender.

He added that Pakistan was also a victim of the process. “We have managed to implement 26 of the 27-point FATF Action Plan. Despite this, the watchdog is keeping the country on its gray list, “he said, adding that Pakistan’s presence on the list was in stark contrast to the watchdog’s biased treatment when it came to India where a convicted mass murderer of Gujarat was allowed to remain head of state.

The Minister further added, the decision to adjudicate Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav by the International Court of Justice is another example of this strategy.

He pointed out that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) Review and Reconsideration Bill was passed in view of the verdict of the international court… “This allowed the opposition to start creating misunderstandings by accusing the government of being the advocate of the Indian spy.”

“We have already agreed that there will be no arbitration on the refusal of either party. However, we still went to the arbitration and we were fined. In the broadsheet agreement, a person was compensated who was not legally entitled to it. It is all the result of our incompetence.”

He stressed the need for launching reforms in domestic law to improve international public relations. “We need to make the foreign office more efficient and dynamic, as well as identify the fault lines within it.”

Concurring with the law minister, Information and Broadcasting Minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, speaking on the occasion, said lawfare was being weaponised against the country. He said the capacity building of institutions was vital to counter the anti-Pakistan propaganda of inimical countries.

Fawad said the term ‘lawfare’ was coined after the Second World War. “Over 85 million people had lost lives in the Second World War, a new thinking emerged that the world could not afford such wars in future and the term ‘lawfare’, which could be interpreted as law and security strategy, was coined.”

The colonial and oppressive powers, he added, used the ‘lawfare’ to crush the subjugated people by using international law to achieve their ulterior motives. Many states had been using the ‘lawfare’ to damage the interests of their rival countries, the minister said.

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