IHC tells govt to give India another chance to hire lawyer for Jadhav

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday directed the government to give another opportunity to India to appoint a lawyer for RAW spy Kulbhushan Jadhav in accordance with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) judgment.

A larger bench of the IHC, comprising Chief Justice Athar Minallah, Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb conducted the hearing on a case filed by Ministry of Law and Justice seeking to appoint a lawyer for Jadhav’s review petition.

Attorney-General for Pakistan Khalid Jawed Khan, Additional Attorney-General Tariq Khokhar and Deputy Attorney-General Tayyab Shah appeared before the court on behalf of the federation.

At the outset of hearing, the Attorney-General told the bench that Pakistan wanted to implement the ICJ’s decision in the matter but India was creating hurdles. He requested the court to proceed with the case and appoint a counsel for Jadhav, or as a second option, the response of the Indian government could be awaited.

The Attorney-General said the held Indian spy had been informed about the previous orders of the court on August 6 but the Indian spy did not want to avail the facility to file review petition against his sentence.

One month had passed but Pakistan had also not received an answer so far from the Indian Ministry of External Affairs pertaining to the third offer to appoint a lawyer, Jawed told the bench.

At this, IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah asked that what would be the status of review petition if Jadhav and the Indian government were not willing to pursue it, adding it would be appropriate to again offer India the same legal facility, in accordance with the principles of transparency.

The Attorney-General said the Indian government was neither refusing nor cooperating on the matter, rather it was just creating hurdles in review petition’s process to avoid the implementation of ICJ’s judgment.

He said Jadhav had refused to file review petition under the ordinance promulgated in this regard. The neighbouring country was just engaged in efforts to defame Pakistan internationally, instead of availing the facility, he added.

The court directed the government to give another chance to India to appoint acounsel for the appeal and adjourned the hearing of the case until October 6.