Indian Lawyer Should Be Provided To Kulbhushan Jadhav

Indian lawyer should be provided to Kulbhushan Jadhav, India told Pakistan. India has asked Pakistan to provide Indian lawyer’s help in filing a review petition against Kulbhushan Jadhav’s death sentence. The Foreign Ministry gave this information on Thursday. Foreign Ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava said in a virtual briefing, ‘We are in touch with Pakistan through the diplomatic channel.

We believe in a free and fair hearing keeping in mind the spirit of the ICJ decision. Anurag Shrivastava said that we have been asked by an Indian lawyer to plead Jadhav’s favor for an independent and impartial hearing in the spirit of the verdict of the International Court of Justice.

Pakistan should focus on the salient points of the issue and provide unrestricted diplomatic access to the papers and Jadhav related to the case. Reports were reported in Pakistani media that the Islamabad court has said that Indian officials should be given a chance to take their stand. In this report, India said that it had not received any message from the Government of Pakistan yet.

Earlier this month the Islamabad High Court set up a large bench to hear the petition related to the appointment of the legal representative of former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan. Kulbhushan is facing the death penalty in Pakistan. Geo News had reported that the bench consists of High Court Chief Justice Athar Minallah, Justice Aamir Farooq and Justice Mian Gul Hasan Aurangzeb.

The petition will be heard on September 3. It is worth mentioning that Jadhav was sentenced to death by a military court in April 2017, convicted of spying and spreading terrorism. India had strongly objected to Jadhav’s arrest in Pakistan and sentenced him without legal aid and had approached the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against the verdict. The International Court of Justice, in July 2019, ordered the Government of Pakistan to review and reconsider the sentence while granting an interim stay on Jadhav’s execution.