India moved ICJ as Jadhav’s life is under threat in Pakistan, says MEA

New Delhi, May 10 : India on Wednesday said it moved the International Court of Justice (ICJ) after 16 requests by it to Pakistan for consular access were denied and also because the life of an Indian individual is at stake. In a media briefing by the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, India refused to get into the realm of conjectures and also refused comments on Pakistan’s reaction.
India also raised the points that they had received no response from Pakistan on the mercy petition filed by Jadhav or on the requests by Jadhav’s family for a visa to visit Pakistan.
In a midnight ruling on Tuesday, the ICJ stayed the execution of Kulbhushan Jadhav, who Pakistan alleges is a spy and was arrested by the Pakistan army in Baluchistan last year. India has accepted that Jadhav is a former Indian naval officer but rejected charges of espionage against him. India moved the ICJ saying Pakistan is violating the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and since both India and Pakistan are signatories to the Convention, the matter has been taken before the ICJ. Harish Salve is representing India at The Hague. “Referring to ‘the extreme gravity and immediacy of the threat that authorities in Pakistan will execute an Indian citizen in violation of the obligations Pakistan owes to India’, India urges the court to deliver an order indicating provisional measures immediately, ‘without waiting for an oral hearing’,” India’s appeal to the ICJ said. Article 74, paragraph 4 of the ICJ says: “Pending the meeting of the court, the president may call upon the parties to act in such a way as will enable any order the court may make on the request for provisional measures to have its appropriate effects.”