SOURCE: Times Now Digital
Pakistan has dismissed India’s demand to allow its lawyers to fight the case of retired Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, who is on a death row over charges of “espionage and terrorism”, in Pakistani courts, reports in the Pakistan media said on Thursday.
“Pakistan will never accept any unreasonable demand by India on Jadhav’s case,” the country’s Foreign Office Spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said Thursday at a weekly press briefing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Pakistan’s media reported.
Chaudhri made the remarks in response to questions whether Pakistan was considering any relaxation in laws to accommodate India’s demands.
He also said that “India had no other option but to cooperate with Pakistani courts”, which only permitted locally registered lawyers before the bench.
The Islamabad High Court (IHC) had earlier this month directed the government of Pakistan to give India another chance to appoint a lawyer for Jadhav. The court then adjourned hearing in the case till October 3. It also directed the Pakistan federal government to send its order on Jadhav to India.
The Pakistani spokesperson also said that Pakistan had received a reply from India in response to the third offer for consular access on the recommendation of the IHC early this month. “However, unfortunately, India still appears evasive on the issue,” he said. “Pakistan had already given ‘uninterrupted and unimpeded’ consular access to Jadhav and was ready to extend the same in the future as well,” he added.
India had challenged Jadhav’s conviction at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and got Pakistan to grant consular access to Jadhav. However, the Ministry of External Affairs has not been provided with unsupervised consular access to him in spite of making several requests.
