Pakistan to file counter-memorial in Kulbhushan Jadhav case on Tuesday

Pakistan will be filing its second counter-memorial in the International Court of Justice on the conviction of alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav on July 17, an official said on Thursday.

On January 23, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) gave a timeline to both Pakistan and India for filing another round of memorials in the case. The counter-memorial is a written pleading in a contentious case before the ICJ.

"Our team has prepared a comprehensive reply to Indian rejoinder, which will be filed on July 17," Foreign Office spokesman Muhammad Faisal said in a press briefing here.

Pakistan's top attorney Khawar Qureshi had briefed Prime Minister Nasirul Mulk about the memorial last week during a meeting that was also attended by Attorney General Khalid Javed Khan and other senior officials.

Faisal said that Pakistan on December 13 last year had filed its counter-memorial before the ICJ, a world court in The Hague which is looking into the Indian complaint on the conviction Jadhav.

India had on April 17 submitted its second memorial in the court.

According to the report after the submission of the second counter-memorial, which will be filed on July 17, the ICJ will fix the matter for hearing, which is likely to take place next year.

He said the hearing of the case would start after the completion of submissions by both New Delhi and Islamabad.

However, a senior lawyer, who has expertise in international litigation, told the Express News that there was no chance of hearing the case in the on-going year. Even the hearing of other matters has already been fixed until March/April next year, therefore, the Kulbhushan Jadhav case will be listed in summer next year, he added.

On September 13 last year, India submitted a 22-page memorandum wherein it objected to Jadhav being tried by a military court in Pakistan. India had contended that Jadhav's trial should have been conducted by a civilian court and that Pakistan was bound to give him consular access.

The ICJ on May 18 last year halted the execution of Jadhav, who was sentenced to death by a military court on April 10 after being convicted on charges of terrorism and espionage.

Jadhav was allegedly apprehended on March 3, 2016, after he illegally crossed into Pakistan via the Iran border.

--IANS

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