ISLAMABAD – The joint session of the parliament on Wednesday approved theInternational Court of Justice (Review and Reconsideration) bill, 2021,thereby allowing condemned Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav to file a reviewappeal against his conviction.
Moved by Law Minister Farogh Naseem, the bill provides for the right ofreview and reconsideration in the matter of Jadhav to give legal effect tothe judgment of ICJ.
The Indian spy had been sentenced to death by a court in Pakistan back inApril 2017. Commander Jadhav of Indian navy was a RAW operative whofacilitated numerous acts of terrorism in Pakistan, which resulted in thekillings of countless innocent citizens of Pakistan.
India approached ICJ against Jadhav’s conviction. After hearing both sides,the Hague-based court issued a verdict in July, 2019, asking Pakistan togive India consular access to Jadhav and also ensure review of hisconviction.
In the light of the ICJ decision, Pakistan had twice granted consularaccess to Jadhav besides offering Indian High Commission a third timeaccess to its national.
Earlier, the ICJ (Review and Re-consideration) Bill, 2020 was approved bythe National Assembly in June last year but the Senate refused to pass it.
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The government, later, promulgated an ordinance to allow Jadhav file areview against his conviction, but he refused.
In 2020, the Pakistan government filed a case in the Islamabad High Court(IHC) to appoint a defence counsel for Jadhav.
The IHC formed a three-member bench in August 2020 which has repeatedlyasked India to appoint a lawyer from Pakistan for Jadhav but New Delhievery time showed reluctance.
The last hearing was on October 5, 2021 and the IHC once again asked thegovernment to ask India to appoint the legal counsel before the nexthearing scheduled for December 9.
