The International Court of Justice is hearing a plea to release Kulbhushan Jadhav who has been lodged in a Pakistani jail on the charges of spying. Jadhav was awarded death penalty by a Pakistani court in 2017. The hearing started yesterday when India presented its case. Today advocate Khawar Qureshi started submission on behalf of Pakistan, contesting the arguments made by India yesterday.

And in a huge surprise, the Pakistani advocate used articles published in Indian media to make its case, to prove that Kulbhushan Jadhav was indeed a spy. The Pakistani side quoted an article written by Journalist Karan Thapar in The Indian Express in 2017, where he had questioned the stand on Ministry of External Affairs in regard to Jadhav.

Qureshi refers to Indian media’s coverage of Jadhav case. Refers to stories by Karan Thapar and Praveen Swami#KulbhushanJadhav #ICJ pic.twitter.com/6vFvxJEpde — Bar & Bench (@barandbench) February 19, 2019

After that, Qureshi quoted another article journalist written by Praveen Swamy in January 2018 for Frontline. In an article titled India’s secret war, Swamy had argued that “it is impossible for India to deny he is who he says he is”, and had claimed that Jadhav was indeed on an espionage mission in Pakistan.

Qureshi refers to Chandan Nandy article published in @TheQuint. It’s taken a journalist to raise the question of the passport issue, Qureshi#KulbhushanJadhav #ICJ pic.twitter.com/c56UXMMVVr — Bar & Bench (@barandbench) February 19, 2019

The Pakistani advocate also quoted another article from India media, an article by Chandan Nandy published in The Quint. Nandy had alleged that Jadhav has two passports, one in his own name and another with the name Hussein Mubarak Patel, and this was presented as a proof that he was working for RAW in Pakistan.

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All these articles were widely quoted by Pakistani media, as proofs that the claims of Pakistan are true.

This is not the first time comments published by Indian media was used against India in a court outside the country. During the hearing for Vijay Mallya’s extradition in London, Mallya’s lawyers had extensively used articles published against then CBI Special Director Rakesh Asthana in trying to prove that the case against Mallya was politically motivated. The London court had rejected those arguments and ordered the extradition of Mallya to India.