India asks Pak to clear Jadhav review process

nNEW DELHI: India on Thursday asked Pakistan to address several basic issues, including unconditional consular access, so that former naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav could seek a review of the death sentence given to him for alleged involvement in spying.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said that no communication has been received so far from the Pakistan government regarding the order by the Islamabad high court to inform India about appointing a lawyer for Jadhav so that a review petition can be filed against his conviction.

“Pakistan needs to address the basic issues which pertain to an effective review in implementation of the ICJ [International Court of Justice] judgment, and these basic issues pertain to making relevant documentation available to us, as well as providing unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav,” Srivastava told a weekly news briefing.

A two-judge bench of the Islamabad high court directed the Pakistan government this week to again inform Jadhav, 50, of his rights under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and the ICJ order of 2019, which stayed his execution and called for a review of his conviction. The judges also ordered the formation of a larger bench to hear the case when it is taken up again on September 3.

India had said last month that Pakistan has blocked all its efforts to seek legal remedies for Jadhav, who was arrested by Pakistani security agencies in Balochistan in March 2016 and charged with involvement in spying. It has also accused Pakistan of violating the ICJ’S judgment.

New Delhi has rejected all allegations levelled against Jadhav and said he was kidnapped by Pakistani operatives from the Iranian port of Chabahar, where he was running a business. The Hague-based ICJ ruled in July 2019 that Pakistan must undertake an “effective review and reconsideration” of the conviction