SOURCE: TNN
In the absence of any “meaningful” consular access for India to Kulbhushan Jadhav, the government is still weighing its options for ensuring justice to the Indian national sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court. Pakistan’s deadline for filing a review petition in the high court against Jadhav’s sentencing expired on Monday. India believes that there is no need to react to Pakistan’s continuously changing position, and also deadlines, in the case.
Islamabad had promulgated an ordinance on May 20 claiming to ensure through it an effective review and reconsideration of Jadhav’s case, as asked by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) last year.As per the ordinance, the review petition had to be filed in 60 days. However, with Pakistan refusing to provide consular access in private, India has not been able to engage Jadhav on his legal rights.For India, unconditional consular access forms the basis of an effective review and reconsideration of Jadhav’s sentencing. As the government said last week, despite earlier having promised unconditional access, Pakistan didn’t allow Indian officials to engage Jadhav privately.
Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi later offered consular access for the third time, claiming this time, no Pakistani official would be present in the meeting. The government though sees it as just another PR exercise meant to create an impression internationally that Pakistan is sincerely implementing the ICJ judgment.
Meanwhile, faced with criticism from the opposition that Pakistan had promulgated an “illegal and unconstitutional ordinance” to facilitate review of the Jadhav case, the Pakistani government said in a statement that the ordinance was in order to comply with the directions of the ICJ to provide an effective mechanism of review and reconsideration.
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 last year that Pakistan must undertake an “effective review and reconsideration” of the conviction and sentence of Jadhav and also grant consular access to India without further delay. The first consular access under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations 1963 was provided by Pakistan on September 2 last year.
