Kulbhushan Jadhav | @ruzhan9 | Twitter
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New Delhi: India on Thursday said Pakistan has not yet communicated to it about the developments relating to the case involving Indian death row convict Kulbhushan Jadhav and demanded unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional consular access to him as mandated by an international tribunal.

“We have not received any communication from Pakistan in this regard,” external affairs ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said at an online media briefing.

He was asked whether Pakistan has informed India about Islamabad High Court’s order in the case.

The Islamabad High Court has named three senior lawyers as amici curiae in the case of Jadhav and ordered the Pakistan government to give “another chance” to India to appoint a counsel for the death-row prisoner.

Srivastava said Pakistan needs implement the order of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the case and make available relevant documents to India besides providing “unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional” consular access to him.

In 2017, India approached the ICJ against Pakistan for denial of consular access to Jadhav and challenging the death sentence.

The Hague-based ICJ ruled in July 2019 that Pakistan must undertake an “effective review and reconsideration” of the conviction and sentence of Jadhav and also to grant consular access to India without further delay.

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Last month, India accused Pakistan of adopting a “farcical” approach in denying available legal remedies to Jadhav against his death sentence in contravention of the ICJ order.

The strong reaction came after Pakistan did not provide documents relating to Jadhav’s case to India so that it could file a review petition in the court against the death sentence.

India said Pakistan blocked all the avenues for an effective remedy available for India in the case, adding New Delhi has so far requested consular access to Jadhav for 12 times over the past one year.

“The whole exercise of not providing any documents related to the case even after repeated requests, not providing an unimpeded consular access and some reported unilateral action of approaching the High Court on part of Pakistan again exposes the farcical nature of Pakistan’s approach,” Srivastava said last month

Jadhav, the 50-year-old retired Indian Navy officer, was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of espionage and terrorism in April 2017.

 

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