Kulbhushan Jadhav hearing LATEST updates: ICJ president Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf adjourned the sitting after Pakistan concluded its presentation. India will present its second round of arguments on Wednesday. Submitting his arguments for Pakistan, advocate Khanwar Qureshi said, “This case is not about consular access. It has at, all material times, been political theatre, a platform for India to engage in rhetoric. It is an impermissible use of this court.” He claimed that India came to the ICJ demanding provision of measures without a hearing. “India hoped that Pakistan wouldn’t appear, but it did. Why didn’t India notify Pakistan of a dispute,” he asked. “The Indian petition in the ICJ is a clear example of traditional methods to downplay Pakistan. In 2014, we lost 140 children in army public school which was admittedly sponsored by India through Afghanistan,” he earlier said. Qureshi cites media reports by Praveen Swami, Chanda Nandi to support his arguments. “These journalists stand up for pluralism and secularism and are part of the India I respect. Their investigation reveals that the RAW had been planning a terrorist operation in Pakistan,” says Qureshi. ‘India invokes charges of propaganda when asked serious questions,’ says Pakistan. That Jadhav was kidnapped from Iran is ridiculous, says Pakistan. “India’s demand of release and return for Jadhav is a ‘modest’ claim,” Qureshi said with thinly veiled sarcasm. He added, “I have had the honour and privilege to represent India in the past, but the incarnation of the country before this court is not one I recognise,” Qureshi says. These are proceedings lodged for political theatre and they should be dismissed, Pakistan says. India is using Afghanistan as a front, Pakistan says. It is clear that India is using Afghanistan as another front for terrorism, Qureshi says. “Pakistan has lost many civilians and security forces in fighting India-driven terrorism in the country,” he adds. ‘Indian NSA Ajit Doval makes no secret of creating unrest in Pakistan’, the advocate says. The Indian petition to the ICJ is a common tradition of “mouthing praise to Buddha” while the “heart stores evil”, Qureshi says. Pakistan to seek adjournment in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case, reports said. Pakistan’s ad hoc judge did not attend the hearing in the ICJ due to health problems on Monday, and is also unwell on Tuesday which is why Pakistan is likely to move for adjournment, reports said. Pakistan said on Monday that India did not provide answers to the key questions it raised at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) about Kulbhushan Jadhav, who has been sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court. The four-day hearing in the Jadhav case opened on Monday at the ICJ headquarters in The Hague amidst heightened tensions between India and Pakistan following one of the worst terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad terror group that killed at least 41 CRPF soldiers. On the first day of hearing, India urged the ICJ to annul Jadhav’s death sentence and order his immediate release, saying the verdict by a Pakistani military court based on a “farcical case” hopelessly fails to satisfy even the minimum standards of due process. [caption id=“attachment_6112211” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]
Kulbhushan Jadhav hearing in the ICJ on Monday.[/caption] Pakistan’s foreign office spokesperson Mohammad Faisal in a video message posted on social media said that Indian arguments had nothing new. “There was nothing new in India’s argument on the issues which we raised, like our question about how he (Jadhav) got the passport with name of Hussain Mubarak Patel and how he travelled 17 times to India using that passport,” he said. Faisal said India also did not show any document like pension book or bank statement to prove that Jadhav had retired from the Indian Navy. He said India demanded “acquittal, release and return” of Jadhav but “it had no answer to the question that how justice will be done with thousands of people who were killed due to his sabotage and terrorist activities.” Faisal said Pakistan would submit its argument on Tuesday. The ICJ set a timetable for public hearings from 18 to 21 February. It is expected that the ICJ decision may be delivered by the summer of 2019. High-profile advocate Harish Salve is fighting the case for India at the ICJ. He has charged the Indian government a token fee of Re 1 to take up Jadhav’s case. “The basic rights of Jadhav were thrown to the winds. The situation is grave, it is urgent, and hence, we approached this court at such short notice,” Salve had argued in court at the last hearing. Advocate Khawar Qureshi is representing Pakistan in the case. The ICJ, the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, will hold public hearings in the Jadhav case from 18 to 21 February, 2019, according to the ICJ website. Jadhav, a retired Indian Navy officer, was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of “espionage and terrorism” after a closed trial in April 2017. His sentencing evoked a sharp reaction in India. Pakistan claims that its security forces arrested Jadhav from restive Balochistan province on 3 March, 2016, after he reportedly entered from Iran. However, India maintains that Jadhav was kidnapped from Iran where he had business interests after retiring from the Navy. New Delhi has said that Jadhav was carrying out legitimate businesses at the Chabahar Port in Iran and not involved in any “subversive activities” in Balochistan as claimed by Islamabad. India claims that Pakistan kidnapped Jadhav from Iran and took him to Balochistan to incriminate him. India moved the ICJ in May the same year for the “egregious violation” of the provisions of the Vienna Convention by Pakistan by repeatedly denying New Delhi consular access to the 48-year-old Indian national.
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