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India awaits Pak response to demand for Jadhav’s charge-sheet

India has still not got a response from Pakistan on its demand for a certified copy of the charge-sheet as…

India awaits Pak response to demand for Jadhav’s charge-sheet

(Photo: IANS)

India has still not got a response from Pakistan on its demand for a certified copy of the charge-sheet as well as the military court order awarding death sentence to former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, it is learnt.

The demand was made by Indian High Commissioner Gautam Bambawale when he met Pakistan Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua in Islamabad on Friday.

New Delhi is also said to be weighing the option of internationalising the death sentence awarded to Jadhav without a fair trial. The matter could also be raised with international human rights bodies.

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Meanwhile, the death sentence awarded to Jadhav and its confirmation by Pakistan Army chief, Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, without taking the civilian leadership into confidence has yet again proved that it is the all-powerful Army which calls the shots in the neighbouring country, observers said.

This has sparked a fresh debate in diplomatic and media circles whether India should consider opening the channels of communication with the Pakistan Army since it is no longer a secret that the Nawaz Sharif government carries little weight like previous civilian regimes when it comes to matters concerning India.

But a source, when asked if India could open a dialogue with the Pakistan Army, said, ’’We know the power structure in Pakistan but we deal only with an elected government in Islamabad as a matter of policy.’’

New Delhi is well aware of the fact that there are multiple centres of power in Pakistan with the Army being the most powerful, making it difficult to deal with Islamabad. ‘’In other countries, the State has an Army but in Pakistan, the Army has got a State,’’ the source remarked.

There is ample evidence to suggest that the Sharif government was kept out of the loop on the proceedings in the alleged espionage case against Jadhav. Even the Parliamentary committees on Defence and Foreign Affairs were not provided information about it.

This ostensibly was the reason why Pakistan’s Foreign Policy Advisor Sartaj Aziz told the country’s Senate in December last year that the government did not have sufficient evidence to prove that Jadhav, a former Indian Navy officer, was a RAW agent. This had greatly upset the Army leadership which instructed the Foreign Ministry to immediately issue a clarification. Mr Aziz also was firmly told to make appropriate amendments in the statement he had made in the Senate.

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