Pakistan court adjourns Jadhav's case till October 5

By Chandrashekar Bhat

A PAKISTANI court has adjourned till October 5 the hearing of the government's plea to appoint a counsel for Indian death-row prisoner Kulbhushan Jadhav, according to a media report.

The Islamabad High Court, which on Tuesday adjourned the hearing at the request of attorney general for Pakistan, Khalid Javed Khan, also issued a notice to the counsel of the Indian High Commission to appear before the court on the next date of hearing.

At the previous hearing of the case on May 7, a larger bench of the high court gave India another chance to appoint a counsel for Jadhav by June 15.

Khan had told the court that India contends that the appearance of its consul before a Pakistani court to defend Jadhav would amount to submission to the jurisdiction of the court and would violate its ‘sovereign immunity'.

The Pakistan government last week rushed through the National Assembly a bill to provide the right of appeal to Jadhav, amid ruckus and boycott by the opposition. The bill is aimed at allowing Jadhav to have consular access in line with an International Court of Justice (ICJ) verdict.

Jadhav, a 50-year-old retired Indian Navy officer, was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of espionage and terrorism in April 2017.

India approached the ICJ against Pakistan for denial of consular access to Jadhav and challenged the death sentence.

The Hague-based ICJ ruled in July 2019 that Pakistan must undertake an "effective review and reconsideration" of the conviction and sentence of Jadhav and also to grant consular access to India without further delay.