Pakistan notifies India of their last shot at appointing lawyer for Jadhav

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has once again informed India of the last chance to assign a legal representative of their choosing to their agent, Kulbhushan Jadhav, arrested in Pakistan for espionage and terrorist activities, ARY News reported on Monday.

Following the ruling of Islamabad High Court, which grants India a final chance to appoint defense counsel for their spy, caught furthering their terrorism agenda in Pakistan, the foreign office on Monday has forwarded the memo and the copy of the IHC verdict to Indian High Commission.

The bench in the case noted that it’s a constitutional court and the legal proceedings in the case required a fair trial, keeping which in view, the court has thus allowed India to arrange for the defense counsel in Jadhav’s case.

Read: India given another chance to appoint defence counsel for Jadhav

Attorney General Khalid Jawed said that if India does not engage in the legal proceedings, in spite of repeated notifications then the situation will be different. He said that India hired a junior lawyer to get access to documents relevant to the case. He added that if India needs to have those documents, then it must follow the legal protocols.

Jawed said that Pakistan is willing to comply with the ruling by International Court of Justice (ICJ) and that India could still acquire the counsellor access to Jadhav, but he stressed that it was India who hampered Pakistani review on his case.

It is to note that law ministry approached IHC to rule in the case of counsellor appointment for RAW’s Jadhav. The petition pleaded that the court may reach a verdict in this case so the ruling by ICJ could be pursued and Pakistan could discharge its international responsibility.

The petition took the stance that Jadhav had refused to file an appeal in court against the military court verdict and it said that he was not able to do so without Indian assistance. It added that India, too, was evasive from availing the counsellor access according to the ordinance.

The military court earlier ruled in Jadhav’s case and awarded him death penalty to which India moved to ICJ and the latter on July 17, 2019, ruled that Pakistan review the moratorium awarded to Jadhav and that Pakistan grants India the counsellor access to him.