Kulbhushan Jadhav gets right to appeal; Pakistan Parliament passes law seeking to implement ICJ ruling
The new law would provide the right of review and reconsideration to Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav
FollowPakistan's Parliament on Wednesday passed a Bill introduced by the country's Federal Minister for Law Muhammad Farogh Naseem that would provide a right of review and reconsideration to Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav in consonance with the judgement of the International Court of Justice. Kulbhushan was sentenced to death for his alleged involvement in espionage and terrorism.
In October this year, in a landmark ruling, the Islamabad High Court had allowed India more time to appoint a lawyer to represent Jadhav for which he was convicted by a military court. Kulbhishan was arrested in the Baluchistan province of Pakistan in 2016 on charges of spying. In 2017, Jadhav was sentenced to death. However, India rejected the charge and stated that the 50-year-old retired Indian Navy officer was abducted by Pakistani operatives from Chabahar port in Iran.
In the same year, India approached the International Court of Justice after Pakistan denied consular access to him. In 2019, The Hague termed that Islamabad had breached the international obligations under Vienna Convention and asked Pakistan to give India consular access to Jadhav and also review his conviction.
In 2020, Imran Khan's government came up with an ordinance in the National Assembly in light of the ICJ ruling amid protests by the Opposition parties. The ordinance labelled as 'International Court of Justice Review and Reconsideration Ordinance 2020' was enacted on May 20, 2020.
In January this year, Pakistan demanded that India should avail the consular access granted to Jadhav and cooperate towards the implementation of the ICJ ruling. However, India called Islamabad's bluff and responded saying that New Delhi's request to provide unimpeded access to Jadhav had not been respected. Time and again, Pakistan also posted spliced and diced videos claiming that Kulbhushan had admitted to his role in spying. However, every single time, Islamabad ended up facing humiliation.
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