India accuses Pak of blocking review options
nNEW DELHI: India on Thursday accused Pakistan of blocking all avenues for an effective review of the case of Kulbhushan Jadhav, sentenced to death for alleged involvement in spying, and said it reserved its rights to avail of further remedies.
A day after the Pakistan government petitioned the Islamabad high court to appoint a lawyer to represent Jadhav for filing a review petition against his death sentence, the external affairs ministry charged Islamabad with systematically blocking access to the former naval officer, not providing documents related to his case and violating the International Court of Justice’s order for a review of his conviction.
“[Pakistan] has blocked all the avenues for an effective remedy available for India,” external affairs ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava told a weekly briefing. “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,” he said, without giving details.
People familiar with developments said on condition of anonymity that India would take the next step after legal consultations. They didn’t preclude the possibility of again approaching the ICJ on Jadhav’s case.
The Pakistan government promulgated an ordinance on May 20 to give foreign citizens convicted in the country the right to file a review petition in courts. The ordinance was aimed at complying with ICJ’S order for effective review and reconsideration of Jadhav’s conviction and sentencing by a Pakistani military court. But even here Pakistan’s actions had led to confusion, Srivastava said. Pakistan created confusion over the last date for filing a review petition, initially saying it was July 19 before changing the date to July 20. Pakistan took two weeks to inform India about the ordinance and shared the copy of it only after a request from New Delhi.
India conveyed its concerns about “inadequacies and shortcomings in the ordinance” with Pakistan in June. It also informed Pakistan the ordinance “neither fulfils nor does it give complete weight to the judgment of the ICJ”, Srivastava said.
ICJ ruled in July 2019 that Pakistan had violated Jadhav’s rights under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and stayed his execution while calling for an “effective review and reconsideration” of his sentence.