Islamabad supreme court on Monday adjourned the Kulbhushan Jadhav case till September 3. The court was to listen to the plea submitted by the Pakistan government against Indian prisoner Kulbhushan Jadhav’s sentence on Monday on the idea of the Presidential Ordinance that permits the review of a choice of the court during a civilian court.
Speaking to the media within the court premises, Attorney General Khalid Javed Khan confirmed that the courts have allowed India to rent a lawyer, but not an Indian.
He said, “The court has said that if we would like to vary the lawyer or if the India government wants to interact with a counsel themselves then they ought to be allowed to try to that.”
To an issue on whether the Indian mission in Islamabad can engage an Indian lawyer or not, the Attorney General said, “Only Pakistani lawyers, those that are entitled to practice in Pakistan are going to be allowed. Indian personal representative isn’t an option for now. Let’s see who they engage.”
In a unilateral move, Pakistan filed the petition within the Islamabad supreme court on July 22, seeking the appointment of a “legal representative” for Jadhav. However, most parties, including the government of India, weren’t consulted before the filing of the appliance by the Ministry of Law and Justice under an ordinance which was enacted on May 20.
Islamabad supreme court on Thursday had constituted a two-member bench to listen to the review petition filed by the Pakistan government in Jadhav’s case.
India has maintained that Pakistan did not provide it “unhindered” and “unimpeded” consular access to Jadhav as mandated during a judgment by the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
During his weekly briefing on July 23, MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said, “The whole exercise of not providing any documents associated with the case even after repeated requests, not providing unimpeded consular access and a few reported unilateral action of approaching the supreme court on a part of Pakistan again exposes the farcical nature of Pakistan’s approach,”
The Presidential decree called the ‘International Court of Justice Review and Reconsideration Ordinance 2020’ allows for a petition to be filed for review of a military court’s decision at Islamabad supreme court through an application within 60 days of its promulgation.
The ordinance was laid within the Lower House of the National Assembly in the week amid uproar and protest by the opposition benches. it had been then mentioned by the committee for further deliberation as per the legislative procedure.
Opposition parties have representatives within the committee in order that they would be liberal to review and add recommendations.
The committee would then send the ordinance with recommendations back to the Lower House for correct legislation.
The next session of Parliament is on Friday.
