New Delhi: India on Thursday said that while it had appointed a Pakistani lawyer for Kulbhushan Jadhav and even approached the Islamabad High Court to file a review petition challenging his death sentence, the Pakistan government’s actions had, in fact, ensured that such measures fail. Pakistan, it said, has “blocked all avenues” for the reconsideration of his death sentence.
“The whole exercise of not providing any documents related to the case even after repeated requests, not providing an unimpeded consular access and some reported unilateral action of approaching the HC on part of Pakistan again exposes the farcical nature of Pakistan’s approach,” said MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava at a weekly briefing.
Also read: ‘No Privacy,’ India’s 2nd Consular Access to Kulbhushan Jadhav Ends with Walkout of Officials
The Pakistani government’s step comes over a month after Islamabad had first announced that Jadhav had refused to file a review petition against his death sentence as per a new ordinance promulgated to implement the judgment of the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
In July 2019, ICJ had observed that Pakistan had breached its obligations under Vienna Convention for Consular Relations by not providing Indian government with consular access to its national, who had been sentenced to death by a military court.
However, ICJ did not accept India’s argument that the sentence should be annulled. Instead, the UN’s judicial body ordered Pakistan to provide “effective review and reconsideration” of Jadhav’s conviction by “means of its own choosing”.
According to Srivastava, India had been unable to obtain a power of attorney from Jadhav, as the meeting was “scuttled” and consular officers were not allowed to hand over any document. The two officials of the Indian high commission had walked out of the scheduled second consular access on July 16 after claiming that they were not given private “unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional” access to Jadhav.
Also read: As Pakistan Remains Unmoved, Here’s What India Can do for Kulbhushan Jadhav’s Freedom
Referring to India’s request for relevant documents like a copy of the FIR and judgment, Srivastava stated that Pakistan advised that these could be handed over only to an authorised Pakistani lawyer.
“Thereafter, India appointed a Pakistani lawyer to obtain the relevant documents. To our surprise, as advised by the Pakistani authorities, when the authorised Pakistani lawyer approached the concerned authorities, they declined to handover the documents to the lawyer,” he said.
Srivastava said that with no “unimpeded and unhindered” consular access and the absence of documents, India as “a last resort,” tried to file a petition on July 18. “However, our Pakistani lawyer informed that a review petition could not be filed in the absence of power of attorney and supporting documents related to the case of Shri Jadhav”.
He also alleged that Pakistan also “created confusion” over whether the last date of filing a petition was July 19 or 20.
Earlier, the Pakistan government had announced that the “International court of justice review and reconsideration ordinance 2020” allows for a petition for review and reconsideration to be filed either by Jadhav, a legally authorised representative or a consular officer of Indian high commission.
Pakistan’s additional attorney general Ahmed Irfan had also stated that the petition had to be filed within 60 days of promulgation of the ordinance, that is, May 20.
India claimed that it had already conveyed its concerns last month about the shortcomings in the ordinance and the delay in informing New Delhi about its contents.
Asserting that the ordinance does fulfil the judgment of the ICJ, Srivastava said that Pakistan seemed “non-serious in its approach” and was not interested in implementing the order of the world court “in letter and spirit. “It has blocked all the avenue for an effective remedy available for India”.
He further stated that Pakistan has not only violated the ICJ judgment, but also its own ordinance. “Pakistan has completely failed to provide the remedy as directed by the ICJ and India reserves its position in the matter, including its rights to avail of further remedies,” added Srivastava.
Islamabad had announced that it had Jadhav in its custody in March 2016. He was accused of being a serving Indian naval officer and masterminding several terror incidents inside Pakistan.
Denying Pakistan’s allegations, India has reiterated that Jadhav had already retired from the Indian Navy and Pakistan had kidnapped him from inside Iranian territory, rather than picking him up in Balochistan.
