TheHague: Pakistan will submit its arguments before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) about Kulbhushan Jadhav, the Indian national who has been sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court.
Islamabad had on Monday claimed that India did not provide answers to the key questions it raised at the ICJ regarding Jadhav, who has been accused of spying by the Pakistani authorities.
The four-day hearing in the Jadhav case opened on Monday at the ICJ headquarters in The Hague amidst heightened tensions between India and Pakistan following one of the worst terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed terror group that killed at least 41 CRPF soldiers.
On the first day of the hearing, India urged the ICJ to annul Jadhav’s death sentence and order his immediate release, saying the verdict by a Pakistani military court based on a “farcical case” hopelessly fails to satisfy even the minimum standards of due process.
In response, Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesperson Mohammad Faisal in a video message posted on social media said that Indian arguments had nothing new.
“There was nothing new in India’s argument on the issues which we raised, like our question about how he (Jadhav) got the passport with the name of Hussain Mubarak Patel and how he travelled 17 time to India using that passport,” he said.
Faisal said India also did not show any document like pension book or bank statement to prove that Jadhav had retired from the Indian Navy.
He said India demanded “acquittal, release and return” of Jadhav but “it had no answer to the question that how justice will be done with thousands of people who were killed due to his sabotage and terrorist activities.”
The ICJ had set a timetable for public hearings from February 18 to 21. While India will argue first on February 18, Pakistan will get its chance to make submissions on February 19.
Then India will reply on February 20 while Islamabad will make its closing submissions on February 21.
It is expected that the ICJ decision may be delivered by the summer of 2019.
India moved the ICJ in May in 2017 against the “farcical trial” by the military court of Pakistan against 48-year-old Jadhav.
Jadhav, a retired Indian Navy officer, was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of espionage and terrorism in April 2017.
India first approached the ICJ on May 8, 2017 for the “egregious violation” of the provisions of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, 1963 by Pakistan by repeatedly denying it consular access to Jadhav.
A 10-member bench of the ICJ, which was set up after World War II to resolve international disputes, on May 18, 2017, had restrained Pakistan from executing Jadhav till adjudication of the case.
Both India and Pakistan have already submitted their detailed pleas and responses in the world court.
Pakistan claims that its security forces arrested Jadhav from restive Balochistan province on March 3, 2016, after he reportedly 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.
Pakistan had rejected India’s plea for consular access to Jadhav at the ICJ, claiming that New Delhi wants the access to get the information gathered by its “spy”.
However, Pakistan facilitated a meeting of Jadhav with his mother and wife in Islamabad on December 25, 2017.
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