Pakistan, who kidnapped former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav and sentenced him to death, admitted that they had to bring an ordinance to Jadhav under pressure from India, if they did not do so, India could go to the UN and get Pakistan banned.
The incident in Pakistan
Pakistan’s newly appointed Law Minister Farog Naseem also said in Parliament on Friday that Jadhav’s sentence has not been waived. However, through this ordinance, Pakistan has tried to throw dust in the eyes of the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Jadhav was neither allowed to appeal in the court nor was provided with the diplomatic access.
According to a news report from leading newspaper Dawn, Naseem said that Jadhav had to bring an ordinance to fulfill the order of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to prevent India from going to the United Nations Security Council(UNSC). Nasim said, “If we don’t do this, India has already made preparations”. India wanted Pakistan not to follow the ICJ order so that it could bring all sorts of proposals to declare a ‘rogue state’ and ban it in the UNSC.
The Law Minister said in Parliament, “As a nation, we have to follow the ICJ order.” If we did not bring this ordinance, India could have used article 94 of UNSC and article 60 of ICJ. We cut India’s hands by bringing this ordinance. Pakistan has done this responsibly. Holding a copy of the ICJ order in hand, Nasim said the court had decided that Pakistan would have to give the counselor access to Jadhav to reconsider the case. He dismissed the opposition’s allegations that the ordinance was brought to forgive Jadhav’s sentence.
“Please tell that Pakistan issued an ordinance in May about Jadhav. Jadhav can then file a review petition in Islamabad High Court within 60 days against the sentence given by the Military Court. There was also talk of giving Jadhav consular access, but in fact, it turned out to be hypocrisy”. Recently, the Foreign Ministry of India said that it is closing all the legal routes of former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav.
Anurag Srivastava said, ‘As a last resort, in the absence of uninterrupted and unrestrained diplomatic contacts and related documents, India tried to file a petition on 18 July. However, our Pakistani lawyer informed us that a review petition cannot be filed in the absence of supporting documents related to the Power of Attorney and Jadhav’s case.
The government had unilaterally filed an application in the Islamabad High Court seeking the appointment of a legal representative (lawyer) for the jailed Indian citizen Kulbhushan Jadhav. However, the Ministry of Law and Justice did not consult the main parties including the Government of India before filing an application in this matter under the federal ordinance.
Jadhav, a 50-year-old retired Indian Navy officer, was sentenced to death in April 2017 by a Pakistani military court for espionage and terrorism. India took the matter to an international court and challenged Jadhav’s not being granted diplomatic access and the death penalty.
The Hague-based international court, in its judgment in July 2019, said that Pakistan should consider Jadhav’s conviction and his sentence effectively and give India diplomatic access without delay. Pakistan passed an ordinance on 20 May in this context, under which the decision of the military court can be challenged in Islamabad High Court within 60 days from the coming of the ordinance by an application. The Pakistan government claims that Jadhav has refused to file a review petition against his decision.
