Kulbhushan Jadhav case: After Pakistan's 'offer', India says share case files first

NEW DELHI: India has shot off yet another note verbale to Pakistan in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case asking Islamabad to address the real issues at hand, namely the need for Pakistan to share case documents with India and provide unimpeded and unconditional consular access to the Indian national.

This followed a formal communication from Pakistan late last week about the Islamabad high court order authorising India to hire a lawyer for Jadhav. Pakistan also invited to participate in the next court hearing on September 3.

The court order hasn't really enthused India, as is obvious from the government's latest diplomatic correspondence. India has conveyed to Pakistan that hiring a local lawyer will be of little significance if Islamabad doesn't share supporting case documents like the FIR and also if it doesn't allow Indian officials to engage Jadhav on his legal rights including the power of attorney.

India had tried to hire a lawyer on July 18 but it still couldn't file a review petition because of, as the government had said earlier, Pakistan's refusal to meet these conditions.

The negotiations for consular access have also just kept going round in circles. While Pakistan has again offered what it calls unimpeded and uninterrupted consular access to Jadhav, India remains wary because of what happened last time, on July 16, when 2 Indian officials went to see Jadhav after India accepted the offer. They registered a protest and walked out after they realised that not only were Pakistani officials present there but also that the meeting was being recorded.

According to Indian authorities, Pakistan didn't keep its word after having promised India unconditional consular access. For India, not allowing unconditional access by preventing a meeting with Jadhav in private will seriously compromise ICJ's order for an effective review and reconsideration of Jadhav's death sentence by a Pakistan military court.

The ICJ had last year held Pakistan guilty of violating the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations by denying consular access to Jadhav. India continues to emphasise before Pakistan that the failure to allow consular access to Jadhav before his alleged confessions were recorded, and on the basis of which he was convicted, has to be remedied in the form of unconditional access.

India has also pointed out to Pakistan that the denial of consular access and other legal rights to Jadhav immediately after his arrest raises question marks about the ‘evidence’ examined by the Pakistan military against him.