Pakistan finalises response in Kulbhushan Yadav case for ICJ
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ISLAMABAD - Pakistan has decided to proceed with its decision of denying consular access to detained Indian spy Kulbhushan Jhadav, a local media outlet reported on Sunday.
Earlier, the International Court of Justice had stayed the execution of Indian spy Jadhav and asked Pakistan to provide consular access to the spy.
Pakistan, in its reply to the ICJ to be sent on October 12, states that Jhadav cannot be granted consular access on the basis of forged documents, adding that he had entered the country with the purpose of spying.
Moreover, the government also decided to appoint former chief justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani as an ad-hoc judge for the Kulbhushan Jhadav case.
Earlier, the ICJ had stayed the execution of Jhadav till the final verdict of the court, saying that Pakistan was acting in violation of the Vienna Conventions, an argument which India had raised when it asked the ICJ to intervene. Pakistan argues that the ICJ has no jurisdiction in the case, which was overruled by the court.
In May 2017, India had moved the ICJ against Pakistan on its decision to execute spy Jhadav, saying that the latter had violated the Vienna Convention in the case and his death sentence should be suspended, while also seeking consular access to the spy through the court.
Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jhadav, who was arrested in counter-intelligence operation in Balochistan on March 3, 2016, was sentenced to death by a military court on the charges of espionage and sabotage activities in Karachi and Balochistan. However, India had repeatedly denied that Jhadav was arrested from Balochistan.
India reacted to the death sentence, calling it a premeditated murder and had summoned then-Pakistan’s High Commissioner to New Delhi Abdul Basit and handed over a demarche, saying, “If this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder.”
