The Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday said that Pakistan has not reached out to India regarding the Islamabad High Court’s order for the appointment of a lawyer for former Indian naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, who is on death row in the country on charges of espionage.

“We haven’t received any communication from the Pakistan government in this regard,” foreign ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said during a press briefing. “Pakistan needs to address basic issues which pertain to effective review, fulfillment and implementation of ICJ [International Court of Justice] judgement. These issues are making relevant documentation available to India and providing unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav.”

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The Islamabad High Court had on Monday directed the Pakistan government to allow Indian authorities to appoint a legal representative for Jadhav. The court had, however, said that the lawyer should be a Pakistani national.

Last month, India had accused Pakistan of blocking all legal remedies to Jadhav and accused the country of adopting a “farcical approach” to the case. On July 17, Pakistan had claimed it had offered to grant India consular access to Jadhav for the third time without the presence of a security guard. India had got the second consular access to Jadhav on July 16, but the officials who had gone to meet him alleged that they were not provided “unimpeded access” and that he was visibly under stress due to the presence of Pakistani officials at the meeting.

A Pakistani military court had sentenced Jadhav to death in April 2017 for allegedly spying for India. Jadhav’s execution was stayed after India moved the International Court of Justice against the verdict in May 2017. India had contended in the court in The Hague that the lack of consular access to Jadhav was a violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

In its July 2019 judgement, the International Court of Justice had concluded that Pakistan had violated the Vienna Convention in its treatment of Jadhav and ordered Islamabad not to execute him at the moment. Following the court’s judgement, Pakistan allowed India access to the former naval officer.