‘India never denied Kulbhushan Jadhav was undercover agent’: Pakistan files counter-plea in ICJ

Pakistan has submitted its second counter-memorial or written submission in the case of Kulbhushan Jadhav at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague that rebutted several arguments made by India.

Pakistan refuted Indian’s allegations that Jadhav’s wife and mother were mistreated when they visited Islamabad to meet him last year, The Express Tribune reported.

In the counter-memorial submitted on Tuesday, Pakistan also raised the issue of jurisdiction of the ICJ, arguing that India had no case to plead because it never denied that Jadhav was travelling undercover on a passport issued for the assumed Muslim name “Mubarak Patel”.

The report said that the opinion of some legal experts was cited in the counter-memorial to justify that the effective review of decisions by military courts are potentially available in the high courts of Pakistan.

India approached the ICJ after a Pakistani military court sentenced the former Indian Navy officer, arrested by security agencies in March 2016, to death on charges of espionage and subversive activities. The ICJ stayed Jadhav’s execution until it decided on India’s petition that his rights were violated by the Pakistani authorities.

New Delhi has dismissed Islamabad’s allegations that Jadhav is a spy and said he was kidnapped by Pakistani operatives from the Iranian port of Chabahar, where he was operating a business.

Pakistan’s counter-memorial was submitted by the director (India) at the Foreign Office, Fareha Bugti, and Khawar Qureshi, the lawyer representing Islamabad at the ICJ. The ICJ is now expected to fix the case for hearing sometime next year.The Tribune quoted a senior lawyer as saying that there is no chance of the case being heard this year as the hearings of many other cases have already been fixed till March or April next year.