Islamabad to submit second reply to Delhi in Jadhav case

AT THE ICJ Pak’s countermemorial, to be submitted on July 17, will be in response to India’s pleadings at int’l court ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan will file its second written reply to India on July 17 in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the conviction of Kulbhushan Jadhav who was sentenced to death by a military court on charges of espionage and terrorism, a media report said on Thursday.

The ICJ on January 23 gave a timeline to both Pakistan and India for filing another round of memorials in the case.

Pakistan’s counter-memorial will be in response to pleadings filed by India in the Haguebased ICJ on April 17.

Attorney Khawar Qureshi, who pleaded Pakistan’s case at the initial stage, briefed Prime Minister Nasirul Mulk regarding the case last week.

Attorney General of Pakistan Khalid Javed Khan and other senior officials also attended the meeting. The counter-memorial has been drafted by Qureshi. After the submission of the second counter-memorial, the ICJ will fix the matter for hearing, which is likely to take place next year. The hearing of other matters has already been fixed until March/April next year, therefore, Jadhav case will be listed in summer next year, said a senior lawyer.

India had moved the ICJ in May last year after Jadhav, 48, was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of espionage and terrorism.

A 10-member bench of the ICJ on May 18 had restrained Pakistan from executing Jadhav till adjudication of the case.

In its written pleadings, India had accused Pakistan of violating the Vienna Convention by not giving consular access to Jadhav arguing that the convention did not say that such access would not be available to an individual arrested on espionage charges.

Pakistan had said that “since India did not deny that Jadhav

(L to R) People perform puja for a favourable ICJ verdict early on Thursday; Kulbhushan Jadhav’s friends celebrate the ICJ’s stay order on his death sentence, in Mumbai. provisions of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, 1963, by Pakistan in Jadhav’s case.

Pakistan claims that its security forces arrested Jadhav from restive Balochistan province on March 3, 2016 after he reportbooks edly entered from Iran.

However, India maintains that Jadhav was kidnapped from Iran where he had business interests after retiring from the Navy. Jadhav’s sentencing had evoked a sharp reaction in India