On Kulbhushan Jadhav, Sushma Swaraj asks Shashi Tharoor to draft response against Pakistan

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Apr 11, 2017 : As Parliament united today in condemning Pakistan for giving the death sentence to former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj asked Congress member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor to help with drafting a resolution that will be adopted by both houses.

 

Ms Swaraj - who made a statement in both houses warning Pakistan over the death sentence - walked up to Mr Tharoor after speaking in the Lok Sabha and requested him to draft the resolution. Mr Tharoor gladly helped after seeking permission from his party’s leader in the house Mallikarjun Kharge. "This is a matter that affects us all," Mr Tharoor told NDTV.

Last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked Mr Tharoor to draft a statement condemning Pakistan for freeing Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, a key plotter of the 2008 Mumbai terror attack.

The resolution the former United Nations diplomat has drafted today will condemn and seek to make a strong statement internationally against the death sentence given to Mr Jadhav by a Pakistani military court that convicted him of "espionage and sabotage activities" in Balochistan.

"There is no evidence of wrongdoing by (Kulbhushan) Jadhav. If anything, he is the victim of a plan that seeks to cast aspersions on India to deflect international attention from Pakistan’s well-known record of sponsoring and supporting terrorism," Ms Swaraj said in her statement in Parliament, warning Pakistan’s government to "consider the consequences for our bilateral relationship if they proceed on this matter."

"Under these circumstances, we have no choice but to consider this sentence, if carried out, as an act of pre-meditated murder," the minister said, calling the Pakistani military court’s charges against Mr Jadhav, 46, "concocted."

"The government and the people of India would view very seriously the possibility that an innocent Indian citizen is facing the death sentence in Pakistan without due process and in violation of basic norms of law, justice and international relations," Ms Swaraj said.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh assured the Lok Sabha that the government will do everything possible to get justice for Mr Jadhav.


Courtesy:NDTV