Pakistan's Parliament has extended an ordinance on Kulbhushan Jadhav for four months
Pakistan's Parliament has extended for four months an ordinance that allowed Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav to file an appeal against his conviction in a high court in Pakistan as required by the International Court of Justice.
The International Court of Justice (Review and Reconsideration) Ordinance which came into effect in May was set to expire on September 17 but Pakistan's National Assembly or the lower house, through a voice vote, extended it for four months, the country's Dawn News reported.
The ordinance was launched to implement the verdict of the ICJ which told Pakistan to provide effective review of the sentence given to Mr Jadhav by a military court.
Kulbhushan Jadhav was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of alleged "espionage" in April 2017.
Pakistan government has approached the Islamabad High Court to appoint a defence lawyer to represent Mr Jadhav.
The court on September 3 heard the case for the second time and directed the federal government to give India an opportunity to appoint a lawyer to represent Mr Jadhav. Now the case will be heard next month.
Pakistan last week said that it has "conveyed the judicial orders to India for appointing a lawyer to represent Kulbhushan Jadhav in the court," but further said that "New Delhi had not responded yet," reported news agency Press Trust of India.
On July 16, Pakistan provided consular access to Mr Jadhav, but India highlighted that the access was "neither meaningful nor credible" and he appeared visibly under stress.
The Ministry of External Affairs said Pakistan is not only in violation of the judgment of ICJ, but also of its own ordinance.
India approached the ICJ against Pakistan for denial of consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav and challenging the death sentence.
The Hague-based ICJ ruled in July last year 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.
Pakistan claims that its security forces arrested Mr Jadhav from Balochistan on March 3, 2016 after he allegedly entered from Iran. India maintains that Mr Jadhav was kidnapped from Iran where he had business interests.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)