ISLAMABAD: The federal government denied on Saturday promulgating any secret any ordinance to give Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav reprieve.

“The spokesperson of the Ministry of Law and Justice has denied the allegations that secretly an Ordinance with a view to give reprieve to the Indian Commander Kulbhushan Sudhir Jadhav was promulgated by the Federal Government, without taking the country or the Parliament into confidence with a malafide intent,” read a statement issued by the ministry of law and justice.

The statement comes a day after PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari accused the government of promulgating an ordinance to facilitate Commander Jadhav.

“What is this secret Kulbhushan Jadhav ordinance introduced by our selected government without taking the country or parliament into confidence,” he had written.

According to a press release issued by the law and justice ministry, the ICJ had instructed Pakistan in its July, 2019 judgment to provide Commander Jadhav an “effective review and reconsideration of the conviction and sentence”.

Indian Navy officer Jadhav was arrested on charges of espionage in Balochistan in March 2016 and sentenced to death by a military court a year later.

“In order to comply with the directions of the ICJ, the International Court of Justice (Review and Reconsideration) Ordinance, 2020 was promulgated to provide an effective mechanism of review and reconsideration to Commander Jadhav, of Pakistan’s own choice,” said the press release.

The press release said that the Article 89 of Pakistan’s Constitution allows the president to promulgate any ordinance when the parliament is not is session. NNI