JOIN USPakistan trying to link Jadhav matter with another Indian's case, says MEA
A lawyer appointed by India in Pakistan was forced to exceed his brief in an apparent attempt to link another case with that of the former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav at a court in the neighbouring country.
New Delhi on Thursday alleged that Imran Khan’s government forced the lawyer Shahnawaz Noon to present before the Islamabad High Court that India’s acting envoy to Pakistan, Gaurav Ahluwalia, would like to appear before the court and explain the position of the Government of India in connection to the hearing on Kulbhushan Jadhav’s plea for review of the death sentence awarded to him in April 2017.
But Noon was not appointed to represent Kulbhushan Jadhav or the Government of India in the case involving the former Indian Navy officer. The High Commission of India in Islamabad in fact appointed him to represent Mohammad Ismail, another citizen of India incarcerated in Pakistan.
Ismail completed his sentence but continues to be in jail in Pakistan. The High Commission of India in the neighbouring country’s capital appointed Noon to appear in the case for release and repatriation of Ismail, Anurag Srivastava, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), said in New Delhi.
But the attorney general of the Pakistan government referred to the case of Jadhav during the hearing on the plea for release and repatriation of Ismail. Noon then told the court that Ahluwalia would like to appear before it and explain the position of the Government of India in connection with the plea on review of the death sentence awarded to Jadhav.
Srivastava said that Noon made the statement in the court without the authorization of the High Commission of India in Islamabad. “He appears to have acted under pressure from the Pakistani establishment to make such statements for which he has no authorisation. He has misrepresented the position of the High Commission. He was clearly told by the High Commission that he had no authority to represent either the Government of India or Kulbhushan Jadhav,” the MEA spokesperson said in New Delhi.
Jadhav has been in the custody of the 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 a death sentence in April 2017. New Delhi moved the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which on July 17, 2019, concluded that Islamabad had violated 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.
To implement the ICJ judgment, 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 a military tribunal could be made to Islamabad High Court through an application within 60 days from the day it was brought into force.
New Delhi recently alleged that 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 to 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.