MULTIPLE PLANS TO SAVE JADHAV

Stunned at the setback at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case and with the Nawaz Sharif government facing enormous pressure over the fiasco, Pakistan will constitute a new team of lawyers to “vigorously” present its case.

Meanwhile, eminent lawyer Harish Salve, who successfully argued India’s case at the ICJ, told a TV channel that India had a Plan A and a Plan B in the case. He said the Plan A would involve efforts to secure an outright release of Jadhav from Pakistan’s custody and (if this was not possible) the Plan B would be to press for an annulment of the death sentence and to get Jadhav proper legal representation in Pakistan so that he can be “tried in a manner acceptable to civilised society”.

Jadhav, an Indian former naval officer, was in April this year sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of espionage and sabotage following which India had on May 8, dragged Pakistan to the ICJ. In what was a major victory for India on Thursday, the ICJ at The Hague had barred Pakistan from executing Jadhav till the court pronounces its final decision in the case.

“The international court is not a court of appeal where we show his innocence. It is a court where we say the procedure which Pakistan had adopted to arrive at this death sentence violates the principles of Vienna Convention which is a multilateral treaty,” Mr Salve was quoted by the news channel.

He was quoted saying that Plan A is the option to argue that such “egregious violation of human rights must compel the man being released”.