Pakistan, July 30 -- Politics aside, two fundamental questions arise from a legal perspective.

First: Under international law, does any state have the right to interfere in another state's judicial system- to influence its courts or use its leverage to suspend or overturn judicial decisions?

Second: Can a citizen of one country lobby foreign parliamentarians against a domestic judicial verdict, encouraging them to use diplomatic, economic, or strategic pressure to influence those decisions? And if a Pakistani citizen engages in such lobbying, what does Pakistani law say? Is it permissible, or is it a serious offence under existing statutes?

To answer these, we turn to the UN Charter. Article 2(1) declares that all states are equal. Not...