India gets yet another chance to appoint Jadhav's counsel

Court urges India to treat Kulbhushan Jadhav like a human being

ISLAMABAD:

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday gave India another chance to provide counsel to convicted Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav in order to implement the decision of the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

The court has now given New Delhi till April 13 to provide the spy with legal representation. 

Attorney General of Pakistan (AGP) Khalid Javed Khan stated that India wanted the proceedings to cease so that the case could then go to the ICJ.

IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah remarked that the decision of the ICJ expressed confidence in the Pakistani judicial system and had left the matter of reviewing the death penalty to Pakistan. He suggested that perhaps India did not understand the decision properly.

A larger bench comprising of Chief Justice Athar Minallah, Justice Amir Farooq and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb heard the law ministry's request to provide government counsel to Kulbhushan Jadhav in order to implement the IJC's decision – which stated that Pakistan should allow Indian consular officers to have access to him and should arrange for his legal representation.

The AGP appraised the court of the progress made with contacts to India regarding Jadhav.

When asked by the court if an act had been passed in this regard, the AGP stated that an act had been passed on the matter in December last year, according to which the law ministry could file a petition against a foreigner, but India had no interest in providing a lawyer to Jadhav.

The AGP further said that India wanted to embarrass Pakistan, but Islamabad had thwarted all their tactics. CJ Minallah stated that India should treat its citizen as a human being, as Pakistan viewed Jadhav as a human being.

Read AGP urges opp not to politicize Jadhav’s issue

In 2016, Pakistan arrested Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav -- a serving officer in the Indian Navy -- in Mashkel in Balochistan, a few miles from the border with Iran.

Disguised as Mubarak Hussein Patel, a Muslim, he was accused of running a spy network for the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India's premier intelligence agency, from the Iranian port of Chabahar.

Video confessions of his activities were released by the government and a military court sentenced Jadhav to death in April 2017 on espionage and terrorism charges. His appeal is pending in the Islamabad High Court.