Sharif meets Army chief amid stay on Kulbhushan's hanging

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Wednesday held a meeting amid the stay order from the International Court of Justice against the hanging of Indian "spy" Kulbhushan Jadhav.

The meeting between Bajwa and Sharif was the second within a week and is significant in the light of the prevailing civil-military relations in the country.

Sources, quoted by Geo News, said that the Prime Minister was briefed on the ICJ order. Gen Bajwa was accompanied by Director General Inter-Services Intelligence Lt. Gen Naveed Mukhtar while Finance Minister Ishaq Dar was also present at the meeting. Reacting to the stay order, Foreign Affairs Advisor to the Prime Minister Sartaj Aziz here said: "We are analysing the Indian petition and the International Court of Justice's (ICJ) authority (on the case)."

Earlier, Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said, India's decision to move the ICJ to halt the death sentence awarded to Jadhav was an attempt to divert attention from "state-sponsored terrorism in Pakistan". The ICJ on Tuesday told Pakistan not to hang Jadhav, sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of promoting terrorism in its territory and spying for India. Asif tweeted: "Indian letter to ICJ attempt to divert attention from state-sponsored terrorism in Pakistan. Kulbhushan convicted of offences against national security." He said India approaching the ICJ is a diversionary tactic. As well, a furious Pakistan is reported to have said the Hague-based tribunal "has crossed its limit", Times Now reported without citing sources. India had sought relief asking for a suspension of the sentence of death awarded to Jadhav, the ICJ said in a press statement. India had stated that the sentence of the military court was in "brazen defiance" of the Vienna Convention rights under Article 36 and elementary human rights of an accused. It alleged Pakistan authorities are denying India its right of consular access to Jadhav despite its repeated requests.

"The applicant also points out that it learned about the death sentence against Jadhav from a press release.

India submits that it has information that Jadhav was `kidnapped from Iran, where he was carrying on business after retiring from the Indian Navy, and was then shown to have been arrested in Baluchistan' on 3 March 2016, and that the Indian authorities were notified of that arrest on 25 March 2016," said the ICJ in a press statement before it stayed the death sentence.