Diversion Tactics

A matter of international importance that is stuck in an interlude because of the deliberate carelessness of one party is the Kulbhushan Jadhav issue. The Kulbhushan Jadhav case, where an Indian spy was detained in Pakistan for espionage and instigating terrorism, reached the International Court of Justice, which in 2019 held that there ought to be a review and reconsideration of the case, but this time with consular access being given to India. Wanting to get this issue settled, Pakistan is now following every rule in the book and granting consular access to India—but it seems India has other intentions.

How far has Pakistan gone? Pakistan has promulgated an International Court of Justice (Review and Reconsideration) Ordinance 2020 to better comply with the ICJ directives. Pakistan has given Jadhav repeated opportunities for appeal, which Jadhav and the Indian government have suddenly lost interest in. Pakistan has provided extensive consular access, allowing the Indian government officials and lawyers access with Jadhav privately—yet none of this seems to satisfy India. The Indian side is now stuck in its demand for Pakistan to forego its domestic laws to allow only Queen’s Counsel (senior lawyers in various Commonwealth countries appointed by letters patent to be one of Her Majesty’s Counsel learned in the law) to fight the Indian spy case. This would go against Pakistan’s rules on the Bar Council.

Looking at the several missed opportunities that India has not taken, it appears that the Indian government is not interested in Jadhav’s well-being. The side is trying to turn the Jadhav case into a foreign policy effort to push over Pakistan. India does not seem inclined to use any of the various legal avenues Pakistan provides for relief, nor does the Indian government show interest in actually settling the matter. Its approach instead has been to throw around frivolous accusations in order to delay the case indefinitely. This is making a mockery of the ICJ judgment—the international community should be consistently reminded that India is not interested in pursuing the case and is seeking diversion tactics to distract from the real meat of the matter—the fact that Jadhav indeed was a spy and was engaging in terrorism.