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Pakistan National Assembly (Lower House of the Parliament) passed the International Court of Justice (Review and Re-consideration) Bill on June 10, 2021 which is aimed at ensuring consular access to Jadhav in line with the ICJ verdict, which called for an effective review of his conviction, the Dawn newspaper has reported. However, the bill is yet to clear the Senate or upper house.

Soon after the bill was passed, the Law Minister Farogh Nasim said, had they not passed the bill, India would have approached United Nations Security Council and could have moved contempt proceedings against Pakistan in the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The house also witnessed a rumpus when Pakistan Peoples Party’s Raja Pervez Ashraf protested over remarks of Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who had stated that by opposing the bill to provide relief to Mr. Jadhav, the Opposition members were toeing the Indian narrative, as per the media reports.

Mr. Jadhav, the 51-year-old retired Indian Navy officer, was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of espionage and terrorism in April 2017 alleging him to be an Indian spy. Pakistan claims that Jadhav was arrested from Balochistan in 2016 on charges of espionage. India has rejected Pakistan’s allegations and said he was kidnapped from the Iranian port of Chabahar.

India approached the ICJ against Pakistan for denial of consular access to Mr. Jadhav and challenging the death sentence. On 17 July 2019, the Hague-based ICJ, upholding India’s claim of the Pakistani regime committing the grievous violation of the Vienna Convention of Consular Relations on several counts regarding Jadhav,  ruled that Pakistan must undertake an “effective review and reconsideration” of the conviction and sentence of Mr. Jadhav and also to grant consular access to India without further delay.

In January 2020, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) of India slammed Pakistan for not acting upon the ICJ’s 2019 Judgment. India also lashed out at Pakistan for failing to provide consular access to Jadhav.  Following that, Pakistan enacted an ordinance called the 'International Court of Justice Review and Reconsideration Ordinance 2020' on May 20, 2020 under which a petition for the review of a military court's decision can be made to Islamabad High Court through an application within 60 days of its promulgation.

Thereafter, Pakistan filed the petition in the Islamabad High Court on July 22, 2020 seeking appointment of a "legal representative" for Jadhav. However, the main parties, including the Government of India, were not consulted ahead of the filing of the application by the Ministry of Law and Justice under the ordinance. On this the then external affairs ministry spokesperson commented, “Pakistan has blocked all the avenues for an effective remedy available for India in the case”.

Further on this, on June 15, 2021, the Islamabad High Court adjourned till October 5 the hearing of the Pakistan government’s petition regarding the appointing of a counsel for Jadhav.

Since the Ordinance has been enforced, India has maintained its position and again reiterated the same on Thursday, June 18 that the bill (earlier the ordinance) is riddled with shortcomings. “It does not create a machinery to facilitate effective review and reconsideration of Shri Jadhav’s case, as mandated by the ICJ judgment.

Spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs Arindam Bagchi in New Delhi said,

“The Ordinance, now the Bill, invites the municipal courts in Pakistan to decide whether or not any prejudice has been caused to Shri Jadhav on account of the failure to provide consular access. This is clearly a breach of the basic tenet that municipal courts cannot be the arbiter of whether a State has fulfilled its obligations in international law. Not only this. It further invites the municipal court to sit in appeal, as it were, over the judgment of the International Court of Justice.”

"We call upon Pakistan to take appropriate steps to address shortcomings of the bill and to comply with the judgment of ICJ in letter and spirit," he added.

To counter India’s call to address the issue, Pakistan on Saturday accused India of "misrepresenting" the verdict of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Jadhav case and asserted that it is ready to fulfil all obligations under international law. Pakistan's Foreign Office (FO) on Saturday said Islamabad abides by all its international obligations, and this applies to the ICJ judgment in the case of Jadhav.