ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has launched a “review and reconsideration process” in the case of an alleged Indian spy, Commander Kulbhushan Sudhir Jadhav, following a verdict by the International Court of Justice in July 2019 that asked the country to reevaluate the entire process of the trial and give India consular access to the prisoner, said Foreign Office Spokesman Dr. Muhammad Faisal.
The Indian naval officer was arrested in March 2016 from the volatile Baluchistan province during a counter-intelligence operation.
According to Pakistani authorities, Jadhav confessed to his involvement in subversive activities and espionage against the country and admitted that he was working for Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s clandestine spy agency.
Tried by a Field General Court Martial, Jadhav was found guilty and sentenced to death a little more than a year after his arrest in April 2017. However, New Delhi approached the ICJ within a month of his sentence and the world court asked Pakistan to stay his execution pending a final decision.
On Thursday, Dr. Faisal said that Pakistan had begun its internal “review and reconsideration process” regarding the death penalty handed down by the military court, though he declined to give details of the legal procedure.
Talking to Arab News in August this year, a leading international law expert, Ahmer Bilal Soofi, said “the review could be done by the appellant court or the high court in exercise of writ petition or it could also be a special bench.”
He added that Jadhav’s “lawyer should be a Pakistani national because under the Pakistan Bar Council’s rules no foreign lawyer can appear before the Pakistani court.”
His assertion was also substantiated by another lawyer, Yasser Hamdani, who noted that “the ICJ verdict makes it very clear that a civilian court will be a necessity in the matter.”
However, he maintained it was not clear how the review process would work since a decision of the military court could not be taken up by the superior civilian judiciary under the Army Act.
“Ultimately, Pakistan will have to constitute a special tribunal by making another law,” Hamdani said.
Pakistan begins ‘review and reconsideration’ process in Jadhav case
Pakistan begins ‘review and reconsideration’ process in Jadhav case
- The International Court of Justice asked Islamabad to review the procedure of the trial in July this year
- Pakistan has already given India consular access to Jadhav in compliance with the world court’s verdict
Pakistan, seven Muslim nations back Palestinian technocratic body, stress Gaza-West Bank unity
- The National Committee for the Administration of the Gaza Strip was announced on January 14
- Muslim nations call for consolidation of the ceasefire and unimpeded humanitarian aid into Gaza
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and seven other Muslim-majority countries on Thursday welcomed the formation of a temporary Palestinian technocratic body to administer Gaza, stressing that it must manage daily civilian affairs while preserving the institutional and territorial link between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank amid the ongoing peace efforts.
In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Türkiye, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates said the newly announced National Committee for the Administration of the Gaza Strip would play a central role during the second phase of a broader peace plan aimed at ending the war and paving the way for Palestinian self-governance.
“The Ministers emphasize the importance of the National Committee commencing its duties in managing the day-to-day affairs of the people of Gaza, while preserving the institutional and territorial link between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, ensuring the unity of Gaza, and rejecting any attempts to divide it,” the statement said.
The committee, announced on Jan. 14, is a temporary transitional body established under United Nations Security Council Resolution 2803 and is to operate in coordination with the Palestinian Authority, the ministers said.
The statement said the move forms part of the second phase of US President Donald Trump’s Comprehensive Peace Plan for Gaza, which the ministers said they supported, praising Trump’s efforts to end the war, ensure the withdrawal of Israeli forces and prevent the annexation of the occupied West Bank.
The top leaders of all eight Muslim countries attended a meeting with Trump in New York last September, shortly before he unveiled the Gaza peace plan.
The ministers also called for the consolidation of the ceasefire, unimpeded humanitarian aid into Gaza, early recovery and reconstruction and the eventual return of the Palestinian Authority to administer the territory, leading to a just and sustainable peace based on UN resolutions and a two-state solution on pre-1967 lines with East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital.
