EDITORIAL: The case of Indian intelligence agency, RAW, operative Kulbhushan Jadhav who is under death sentence for fomenting terrorism in this country, is receiving renewed attention with Pakistan providing India with second consular access to its man as per its commitment to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). On Thursday, two Indian diplomats stormed out of a consular meeting raising objections first to the presence of a glass wall between them and Jadhav, which was removed, and then over the presence of a guard. Accepting their demands, Pakistan on Friday offered another meeting, which India may yet forgo on one pretext or another. For, it is in no position to deal with the issue at hand: an opportunity for Jadhav or his government to file a review petition against his conviction in the Islamabad High Court (IHC).
It may be recalled that Jadhav was caught red-handed in 2016 from Balochistan carrying an authentic Indian passport under a fictitious name, Mubarak Hussein Patel - this fact was established before the ICJ. He was tried and convicted under the Pakistan Army Act (along a similar practice in India) in April of 2017. Soon afterward, India approached the ICJ, which stayed Jadhav's death sentence without entertaining its request to annul the military court's verdict. The ICJ obliged Pakistan to provide, by means of its own choosing "effective review and reconsideration of the conviction and sentence." Islamabad has gone an extra mile to fulfill that obligation, promulgating an ordinance entitled "ICJ Review and Reconsideration Ordinance, 2020" that allows foreigners, their authorized representatives or consular officers of the mission of their country to seek a review by a high court, of conviction and sentence awarded by military courts in instances in which the ICJ has ruled about their rights under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of 1963. That has put New Delhi in a quandary.
A few days ago, Islamabad said Jadhav had refused to file a review petition in the IHC against his conviction despite an offer to do so, deciding instead to follow up on his pending mercy petition. Unaware of the new ordinance issued on May 20 but made public only on July 8, New Delhi had reacted angrily claiming Jadhav had been "obviously coerced" to give up his right to seek "review and reconsideration" of his sentence as ordered by the ICJ. It now has no reason not to ask for review on behalf of its man. Refusal to do that will only lend confirmation, if any was needed, to his confessional statement that he was a serving officer of Indian Navy working for RAW, and sent to Pakistan "to hold meetings with Baloch insurgents and carry out activities with their collaboration. These activities have been of criminal nature, leading to killing or maiming of Pakistani citizens." In simple words, his mission was to carry out acts of sabotage and terrorism in this country. India surely would not like to be exposed as a sponsor of terrorism before a civilian court in full media glare. It must be thinking of some new excuse to evade "review and reconsideration' of Jadhav's case it demanded so vigorously.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020