ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office on Thursday denied changing any laws to facilitate the case of Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav following New Delhi’s demand to allow its lawyers to fight the case in local courts.
“Pakistan will never accept any unreasonable demand by India on Jadhav’s case,” Foreign Office Spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said Thursday at a weekly press briefing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, when asked if Pakistan was considering any relaxation in laws to accommodate the Indian demands.
The spokesperson said there was no other option for India but to “cooperate with Pakistani courts”, which only permitted the appearance of locally registered lawyers before the bench.
The case of an Indian serving navy commander is under trial at the Islamabad High Court after the International Court of Justice (ICJ), in its verdict asked Pakistan for a “review and reconsideration” of the death sentence announced by the military court.
“Pakistan remains committed to the implementation of IHC judgment,” he said. Chaudhri confirmed that Pakistan had received a reply from India in response to the third offer for consular access on the recommendation of the IHC early this month.
“However, unfortunately, India still appears evasive on the issue,” he said.
The FO spokesperson said Pakistan had already given “uninterrupted and unimpeded” consular access to Jadhav and was ready to extend the same in the future as well.
Chaudhri slams India’s army chief
The FO spokesperson strongly condemned the recent statement by Indian Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat who said Pakistan could suffer “heavy losses for any misadventure if it took advantage of Ladakh situation”.
“Such belligerent statements from senior military leadership of India provide insight into how the BJP-RSS mindset — a dangerous mix of extremist ideology, hegemonic ambitions, and obsession with Pakistan, has permeated Indian state institutions,” he said.
Chaudhri said India’s defence capabilities had been “embarrassingly exposed to the world” not far ago.
“Unfortunately, the Indian government in response to any geopolitical, economic, or military setback, instead of learning from its mistakes and instituting course correction, simply doubles down on its miscalculation and bellicose rhetoric.”
On India’s demand of removing the Jammu and Kashmir dispute from the United Nations Security Council’s (UNSC) agenda, the spokesperson said the “ill-conceived Indian move” ahead of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly later in the month was another desperate but pointless attempt by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) regime to find an escape from its global condemnation.
“The ‘India-Pakistan Question’ is one of the oldest items on the agenda of the UN Security Council and the outstanding question remains on the Security Council’s agenda since India has never implemented the Security Council resolution concerning Jammu and Kashmir dispute,” he said.
The FO spokesperson said in attempts to divert the world’s attention from its egregious human rights violations in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, India continued to resort to indiscriminate and unprovoked firing along the Line of Control, targeting innocent civilians.
During the current year alone, India had committed 2,199 ceasefire violations to date, resulting in 17 martyrdom and serious injuries to 171 civilians, including women and children, he added.
Afghan peace, Xi’s visit, deaths of 11 Pakistanis in India
To a question regarding a delay in the intra-Afghan dialogue, the FO spokesperson said Pakistan had consistently maintained that the Afghan peace process had reached a critical stage and required efforts by all the stakeholders.
Only a political settlement in Afghanistan would lead to peace and stability in the country, he added.
He condemned the attack on Afghan vice president, saying Pakistan was against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.
As regards the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Pakistan, he said the Foreign Office was in touch with the Chinese government to sort out the details.
About the mysterious killing of 11 Pakistani Hindu nationals in India where a family member accused involvement of Indian intelligence agency RAW, the spokesperson said Pakistan had asked India to share the circumstances of death and provide a copy of the FIR.
