JOIN USPakistan to give 'another chance' to India to appoint Kulbhushan Jadhav's lawyer
The Islamabad High Court on Monday asked the Pakistan Government to approach New Delhi again giving the Government of India an opportunity to appoint a lawyer to represent former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav as he seeks a review of the death sentence awarded to him by a military tribunal in the neighbouring country.
The court said that the Government of Pakistan should get its Ministry of Foreign Affairs offer the Government of India another chance to arrange a lawyer to represent Jadhav during the hearing on his petition for the review of the death sentence awarded to him by the military tribunal in April 2017.
A two-member special bench comprising Islamabad High Court’s Chief Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb heard the Pakistan Government’s petition for appointment of a lawyer for the Indian Navy officer as neither he, nor the Government of India had so far arranged one so far.
The court, however, was in favour of giving New Delhi and Jadhav another chance to appoint a lawyer and adjourned the hearing till September 3, according to a report by the Express Tribune news portal of Pakistan.
The lawyer, who will be appointed by Jadhav or New Delhi on his behalf, must be someone, who is entitled to practice in Pakistan, not anyone from India, according to the media-reports quoting Attorney General of the neighbouring country Khalid Javed Khan.
New Delhi last month alleged that Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government in Islamabad not only failed to provide the High Commission of India in the capital of Pakistan “unimpeded” consular access to Jadhav, but also declined to hand over the copies of the documents related with the case to a lawyer in the neighbouring country after he was appointed by the Government of India to seek review of conviction and sentencing of Jadhav in the High Court.
The Pakistan Government on July 22 moved the Islamabad High Court seeking appointment of a lawyer to represent Jadhav, stating that New Delhi and the incarcerated former Indian Navy officer had failed to arrange one.
Jadhav has been in the custody of Pakistan Army at least since March 2016. He was accused and convicted of being involved in espionage and sabotage in Pakistan on behalf of an external intelligence agency of India. A military tribunal awarded him death sentence in April 2017. New Delhi moved the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which on July 17, 2019, concluded that Islamabad had violated the Article 36 of the Vienna Convention of Consular Relations 1963, and the death sentence awarded to Jadhav would remain suspended till the review of the conviction.
Pakistan on May 20 last promulgated an ordinance called the “International Court of Justice Review and Reconsideration Ordinance 2020”, which mandated that a petition for review and reconsideration of conviction by military tribunal could be made to Islamabad High Court through an application within 60 days from the day it was brought into force.