Pakistan can never take its dispute with India over Kashmir to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) as it is a bilateral issue, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Monday.

Sushma told journalists that the India-Pakistan dispute over Kashmir must be resolved by the two neighbours through bilateral discussion within the framework of the Shimla Agreement of 1972 and Lahore Declaration of 1999.

She was replying to a query on the possibility of Pakistan moving the ICJ over Kashmir in retaliation to a similar move by India, after a military court in the neighbouring country recently sentenced a former Indian Navy officer, Kulbhushan Jadhav, to death.

Sushma said the Shimla Agreement and the Lahore Declaration had ruled out the involvement of a third party in resolving the Kashmir dispute.

She noted that New Delhi had moved the ICJ as Pakistan had violated the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, 1963, by turning down India’s repeated requests for consular access to Jadhav, who has been in Pakistan’s custody since March 2016.

Pakistan is likely to counter India’s plea by challenging the jurisdiction of the ICJ. Sushma said India would present a very strong argument to counter Pakistan.
DH News Service