New Delhi: Pakistan on Tuesday made submissions in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case, over which it is battling India in the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Concluding the submissions, its representing lawyer Khawar Qureshi, invited the top court to declare India’s application as “inadmissible” and called Jadhav “an instrument of India's official policy of terror".

Qureshi alleged that the case of Kulbhushan Jadhav was not about consular access as India presented it, it was rather a “political theatre”.. a platform for “this new incarnation of India to engage in rhetoric”.

“India’s application should be declared inadmissible by reason of India’s conduct in this context manifesting abuse of rights, lack of good faith, illegality, lack of clean hands and misrepresentation, further or in the alternative, the conduct of India as aforesaid militates against the grant of any relief in any event,” Qureshi said while concluding his speech.

Arguing India’s claim of violation of Vienna Convention on Consular Relations , Qureshi said  VCCR is not engaged as India has not established that Commander Jadhav is an Indian national. “Nor was consular access refused prior to commencement of these proceedings,” he added.

Customary International Law provided for an exception to consular access in the case of an individual reasonably suspected of espionage. This remained unaffected by the VCCR.  Even if the VCCR was engaged, India’s conduct in sending Commander Jadhav to engage in the acts of espionage constitutes a violation of Article 5 (a) as well as 55 thereof and subsequently permitting consular access would continue such a violation, Qureshi argued.

He alleged that the Indian Navy officer was a "spy" and not a businessman and India used Jadhav to “create terror and destruction and wreak havoc in Pakistan.”

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"India doesn't know Pakistan, Pakistan is a state that has provided the largest contingent for peacekeeping, whose soldiers have lost lives in pursuing world security," the Pakistan counsel said.

He also said "India failed to provide an explanation for how Kulbhushan Jadhav was able to travel in and out of India with a passport with a false name."

Tomorrow India will present its second round of arguments and will answer the questions put up today by the Pakistan counsel.

The ICJ, the principal judicial organ of the UN, is holding public hearings in the Jadhav Case (India v. Pakistan) from 18 to 21 February 2019. The hearings, held under the presidency of Judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf, concern the merits of the case.

The four-day hearing opened Monday amidst heightened tensions between India and Pakistan following one of the worst terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad terror group that killed at least 40 CRPF soldiers.

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