Afia Ambreen
The proceedings in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case will commence from February 18 before the International Court of Justice at The Hague. An Indian team will present its arguments on the case from February 18, while the Pakistani team will be given a chance to present their case on February 20. The diplomatic sources said that the Pakistani lawyers will submit their statement in response to India’s arguments on February 21. Attorney General and officials of Ministry of Law and Foreign Affairs will also attend the hearing. Former chief justice Tasadduq Jillani will perform his duties as adhoc judge, while Pakistan will respect the decision of the International Court of Justice. However, Indian has not yet provided evidence of Kulbhushan Jadhav’s retirement. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) will take up the case of Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav, who was sentenced to death by a military court on spying charges. “The ICJ will hear the case on daily basis for a week during February 19 to February 25, 2019.”
It is worth mentioning that, Jhadav, an Indian Naval officer was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court for running the terrorists network inside Pakistan, which he himself confessed. Indeed, immediately after the award of death sentence to Indian spymaster, Kulbhushan Jhadav by the Military Court of Pakistan Army, the Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj cautions Pakistan for the consequences. In her statement, she said, “I would caution the Pakistani government to consider the consequences for our bilateral relationship if they proceed on this matter.”
The Minister also assured the Indian parliamentarians that, Indian Government would go ‘all out’ to save the Indian spy, who has been running a RAW terrorist network in Pakistan, being a serving Indian Naval officer. Ms Swaraj also declared Jhadav as the ‘son of India’ and astonishingly, said that, Kulbhushan has done nothing wrong and there is no evidence against him, as if he was on a tourist visa to Balochistan. She also said that, “This is an act of premeditated murder.” Besides, another influential Indian Parliamentarian of ruling BJP, Mr Subramanian Swamy has emphasized Indian Government to recognise Balochistan as an independent country, in case Pakistan executes the Indian spy. What a juvenile thinking by the Indian leadership.
As Pakistan has declared the Indian manipulation of referring the Jhadav case to ICJ is nothing else, but a ‘Political Theatre’. In fact India is misleading the world by saying that, Jhadav was kidnapped from the Iranian port of Chabahar and his secret trial was a “farce”. The sentence by military court was based on public confession of this Indian Naval Officer, on deputation to RAW. During the preceding of the case, Kulbhushan Jhadav has confessed before a magistrate and the Military court that “he was tasked by Indian spy agency Research and Analysis wing to plan, coordinate and organise espionage and sabotage activities seeking to destabilise and wage war against Pakistan through impeding the efforts of law enforcement agencies for the restoration of peace in Balochistan and Karachi.”
Jhadav was tried by the Military court through Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under Section 59 of the PAA and Section 3 of the Official Secret Act of 1923. As per ISPR, he was provided a defence council to fulfill the legal requirement. Yet he has sufficient time to appeal against the verdict. The truth is that, arrest of Indian RAW terrorist, Naval Commander Kulbhushan Jhadav from Pakistani soil (Balochistan) in March 2016, was a direct evidence of Indian state sponsor terrorism inside Pakistan. Nevertheless, for decades, India has been misleading the world about Pakistan, to conceal its terrorism.
India has long had a history of fanning terrorism inside Pakistan by sponsoring terrorist outfits in Balochistan, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, and Karachi. Islamabad had said that the case of Kulbhushan Jadhav substantiates India’s continued involvement in subversive activities in Pakistan. Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN Maleeha Lodhi handed over a dossier to United Nations (UN) Secretary General Antonio Guterres detailing evidence of Indian subversive activities within Pakistani territory. The dossier contained Jadhav’s confessional statement and related documents and evidence of Indian interference in Balochistan. Video evidence of an Indian Navy submarine sneaking into Pakistani waters on November 18, 2016 was also part of the dossier. The dossier also included proof of contacts of Indian intelligence officials, working under diplomatic cover at Indian High Commission in Islamabad, with terrorists. Pakistan, in the dossier, urged the United Nations to prevent India from attempting to destabilise it.
Investigations after Jadhav’s arrest had revealed that the undercover Indian agent’s main agenda was to sabotage the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) through propaganda and to create disharmony among the Baloch nationalist political parties. However, Jadhav was not the first RAW operative caught snooping in Pakistan. Prior to him, a good number of Indian spies had been spotted and hand-cuffed in Pakistan during the course of country’s enmity with its neighbouring nation.
