India distances itself from Pakistan move to get Kulbhushan Jadhav a lawyer

ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI: India has distanced itself from a move by Pakistan on Wednesday to approach the Islamabad high court for appointment of a lawyer for a review of Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav’s sentencing by a military court. Pakistan approached the court, as official sources said, without the consent of the Indian mission in Islamabad.

India sees the move by Pakistan as another attempt to grandstand and create a smokescreen of review and reconsideration of the death sentence to Jadhav.

While Pakistan is learned to have “extended” the deadline for India to file a review petition in the case, it has not agreed to India’s demand that a lawyer from outside Pakistan represent Jadhav.


As per Pakistan’s May 20 ordinance, the review petition had to filed within 60 days of the promulgation of the ordinance. India, though, doesn’t want to respond to every change in deadline or even Pakistan’s position in the case when it’s yet to get what Indian officials describe as unconditional, and also private, access to Jadhav.

Calling for an effective review and reconsideration of the military court’s verdict, the ICJ had last year also held Pakistan guilty of violating the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations by denying consular access to Jadhav. An ICJ spokesperson was quoted as having said on Wednesday that the court’s judgment was final, binding and without appeal. The Hague-based ICJ had ruled that Pakistan had failed to inform Jadhav of his rights, and deprived the Indian government “of the right to communicate with and have access to him, to visit him in detention and to arrange for his legal representation”.