AMN / NEW DELHI
India has said that Pakistan has blocked all the avenues for an effective remedy available for India in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case. Briefing media today, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Anurav Srivastava said, the whole exercise of not providing any documents related to the case, not providing 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.
He said, Pakistan is not only in violation of the judgment of ICJ, but also of its own Ordinance. He said, Pakistan has completely failed to provide the remedy as directed by the ICJ and India reserves its position in the matter, including its rights to avail of further remedies.
India has so far requested consular access twelve times over the past one year. However, Pakistan has so far not been able to provide an unimpeded consular access. The spokesperson said the meeting of Consular Officers with Mr Jadhav on 16 July was scuttled by Pakistan authorities. He said the Consular Officers were instructed not to hand over any document to Mr Jadhav. Hence, the Indian Consular Officers could not obtain a Power of Attorney from him.
Similarly, India has repeatedly requested Pakistan for relevant documents related to the case. Pakistan advised India that the relevant documents could be handed over only to an authorised Pakistani lawyer. Thereafter, India appointed a Pakistani lawyer to obtain the relevant documents. Mr Srivastava said that when the authorised Pakistani lawyer approached the concerned authorities, they declined to handover the documents to the lawyer.
He said as a last resort, India tried to file a petition on 18th July. However, the Pakistani lawyer informed that a review petition could not be filed in the absence of power of attorney and supporting documents related to the case of Mr Jadhav.
The spokesperson said, Pakistan also created confusion over the last date of filing a petition. Initially, they indicated that a petition has to be filed by no later than 19 July. Subsequently, Pakistan indicated that the time limit to file a review petition shall expire on 20 July. Knowing the inadequacies and shortcomings in the Ordinance, India had already shared its concerns in June with the Pakistan authorities.
Mr Srivastava said Pakistan took two weeks to inform India about this Ordinance and shared the copy of the Ordinance only after India requested the same. He said India has conveyed that the Ordinance neither fulfills nor does it give complete weight to the judgment of the ICJ. Mr Srivastava said it seems that Pakistan was non-serious in its approach with regards to the Ordinance and was not interested in implementing the judgment of the ICJ in letter and spirit.