The mercy petition of Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav, a retired Indian navy officer sentenced to death by a Pakistan military court allegedly for espionage and subversive activities, is in its “final stages” and a “good news” is likely to come “very soon,” a senior Pakistani army officer told news reporters in the country on Thursday.
Though he didn’t spell it out, the “good news” for Pakistan is likely to be the army chief turning down Jadhav’s mercy petition, clearing way for his execution.
Talking to reporters in Rawalpindi, the Director General of Inter Services Public Relation (ISPR), Major General Asif Ghafoor on Thursday said that a “good news” on the Kulbhushan Jadhav case could be expected anytime soon.
How will, if at all the Chief of Pakistan Army General Qamar Javed Bajwa turns down the mercy appeal of the Indian national, such an execution order be viewed in context of the ongoing arguments at International Court of Justice remains to be seen.
In a hearing of the case on May 18, a 10-member bench of the ICJ restrained Pakistan from executing Jadhav. The top UN court had ruled that Pakistan “shall take all measures at its disposal to ensure Jadhav is not executed pending final decision.”
On September 27, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif claimed that a proposal was made to swap Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav for a jailed terrorist in Afghanistan, who was responsible for the horrific 2014 Peshawar school attack.
India vehemently denied the claim.
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