Harish Salve Says After ICJ, India Tried To Persuade Pakistan Through Back Channel To Release Kulbhushan Jadhav

Senior advocate Harish Salve on Saturday (2 May) revealed that after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) hearing, India had tried to persuade Pakistan through “back channel” to release former Indian Navy personnel Kulbhushan Jadhav, The Economic Times reported.

Salve had represented India at the ICJ after a Pakistan military court had sentenced Jadhav to death on allegations of “espionage and terrorism” in 2017. The ICJ had later in 2018 ruled that his death sentence must be reviewed by Pakistan after a closed trial.

Speaking at an online lecture series organised by the Akhil Bharatiya Adhivakta Parishad, affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Salve said after the ICJ ruling India has been consistently asking Pakistan side of its plan as to how they are going to out the ICJ judgement and give effective review and reconsideration. But, we have not received any satisfactory answer from Pakistan, the senior counsel added.

“We were hoping that through back channel, we may be able to persuade Pakistan to let him go. If they want to say on humanitarian ground or whatever, we want him back. We said let him go. Because it has become a big ego problem in Pakistan. So, we were hoping that they will let him go. They haven't,” he said, while answering a question on the current situation in the matter.

“We have written four-five letters. They just keep on denying,” he said. He further said he thinks India had reached a point where we should now decide whether we want to go back to ICJ for consequential directions because Pakistan has not moved ahead.

Although following the ICJ order Pakistan had granted Jadhav consular access, it was too late and ever since we have been struggling to get Pakistan to setup a machinery, he added.

“Pakistan believes, first of all they told the whole world they have won the case, good for them. And now, they keep saying that you have to file a proceeding in a Pakistani court or take Pakistani proceedings,” he said.

According to Salve, Pakistan has also refused to share the necessary details of the case such as the FIR, the chargesheet, or the judgement of the military court with Indian officials.