It seemed on Wednesday, Pakistan had lost more than the case at the International Court of Justice; it lost 20 crore rupees. It has been reported that Pakistan paid Rs 20 crores as legal fees to its Cambridge educated lawyer, Khawar Qureshi to represent the country in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case. On the other hand, Harish Salve, the lawyer representing India in the case has just charged Re. 1 as his legal fees.
In Pakistan’s budget document presented in its National Assembly, it had been stated that the amount was paid towards the legal fees in the case. In a debt-ridden economy, losing out on 20 crore rupees just for legal fees, that too in a lost case is extremely disheartening.
Harish Salve, the Indian lawyer charges around Rs 30 lakhs daily to represent clients. However, in order to protect India’s sovereignty and citizens against the ill intents of the neighbour, he had charged just Re. 1. This gesture had been widely appreciated by external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj back in 2017 and had even tweeted about it, stating that Harish Salve had just charged the Indian government Re. 1 for the case.
Not fair. #HarishSalve has charged us Rs.1/- as his fee for this case. https://t.co/Eyl3vQScrs
— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) May 15, 2017
On Wednesday, Pakistan was subjected to international humiliation when the ICJ had refuted its claims of Kulbhushan Jadhav being a spy. He is a former Indian Navy officer who retired prematurely. As per Pakistan, Jadhav is a serving officer in the Indian Navy, commissioned to the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). Pakistan believes Kulbhushan Jadhav to be involved in subversive activities in Balochistan and Karachi.
Based on this, Jadhav has been in Pakistan’s ‘military’ prisons for more than three years now. He had been sentenced to death by the Pakistani military court on the charges of “espionage and terrorism” in April 2017. Following this, PM Modi had taken the case to the ICJ on 8th May 2017.
Pakistan had sought dismissal of the application, which had been rejected by ICJ. In the verdict on Wednesday, out of the 16 judge bench, 15 found Pakistan in violation of the Vienna Convention. Hence, the Court has granted India consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav, which had been denied by Pakistan. In addition to that, the court has also maintained the stay on his execution. The court has said that Jadhav’s death sentence should remain suspended until Pakistan reviews and reconsiders the conviction/sentence in light of Pakistan’s breach of Art 36(1) i.e. denial of consular access and notification.
Pakistan hasn’t shown any dignity to the prisoner and as a country signatory to the Vienna Convention, hasn’t abided by its rules at all. Now, with the loss in the case being a big international embarrassment to them, they have also incurred a substantial loss in their internal economy. Rs. 20 crore rupees amounts to Rs. 46.23 crore Pakistani rupees, a loss the debt-ridden country could do without.
