Kulbhushan Jadhav case at ICJ: ISI officials observe court proceedings

India Today has learnt that while India and Pakistan battled it out for four days at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), officials from Pakistan’s ISI were present inside the court to observe proceedings.

The officers of Pakistan’s spy agency tried evading the cameras but India Today crew spotted an officer who waited for the journalists to disperse before stepping out of the court.

Pakistan made efforts that the ISI official is not caught on camera.

Pakistan continued its vitriol during the hearing. Pakistani counsel Khawar Qureshi resorted to name calling and took a jibe at Indian counsel Harish Salve.

“India’s position is that of wonderland. Indeed it is of a Rotund character with a fragile cranium. Pakistan is not the one who brought him into this court”, Qureshi said in court.

He went further to attack senior Indian officials and called NSA Ajit Doval a “James Bond” in a dismissive tone.

“If he ever visits London there is a vacancy for an actor to play James Bond”, he said.

With little substance and more barbs, Qureshi focussed on India “misinterpreting” Pakistan’s military court system and further went on to question India’s arguments on 2008 bilateral agreement and Vienna Convention on Consular Access. Qureshi said that before the 1973 convention came into being, espionage as per convention was treated as an exception.

Kulbhushan Jadhav was tried under the espionage law in the military court, Qureshi said. India’s claim for relief remains as “far-fetched now as it was then,” he says. He concludes that India’s claim for relief must be dismissed or declared inadmissible.

Pakistan made it personal. Hitting out at India, Pakistan’s Attorney General Anwar Mansoor Khan invoked all issues unrelated to the case catering to the domestic audience in Pakistan. He brought up the cases of Afzal Guru, Samjhauta Express, 2002 Gujarat violence, alleged human rights violations and use of pellet guns by the Indian Army, and rape of the 8-year-old girl in Kashmir.

He also raised the issue of recent Pulwama attack and lashed out at India saying that the latter has become the judge and an executioner.

The Indian side came out and said that it would not comment until the verdict

The court convened with Pakistan’s judge ad hoc Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani joining the bench on the last day of the hearing. The session began after Justice Jillani was sworn in.