Pakistan says Indian spy not under immediate execution threat

Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has rejected reports that detained Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav will be executed soon after an arranged meeting with his mother and wife in Islamabad on Dec. 25.
“Let me assure you that Commander Jadhav is under no threat of immediate execution and his mercy petitions are still pending,” the Foreign Ministry spokesman said. “The mother and wife of Commander Jadhav are being provided with a meeting with him in the light of Islamic traditions and based on purely humanitarian grounds,” he said.
Pakistan’s authorities for the first time confirmed that the meeting will be held in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 
“Pakistan is ready to permit media interaction with the wife and mother of Commander Jadhav. We await Indian decision in this regard,” the Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
The Foreign Office on Thursday sent emails to journalists requesting contact information and identification numbers of reporters. It is likely that a special press briefing with Jadhav’s family members will be held in Islamabad, however no confirmation of this has been provided by officials.
On “humanitarian grounds,” Pakistan’s High Commission in New Delhi issued visas on Wednesday to the spouse and mother of Jadhav, arrested in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, Pakistan’s most impoverished region and important for “One Belt, One Road” segment — the multibillion-dollar China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs tweeted to confirm that its diplomatic mission in India had processed the visas. Jadhav’s wife and mother are expected to travel to Pakistan on Dec. 25, escorted by an Indian official with diplomat status.
Jadhav was apprehended on March 3, 2016 by Pakistan in a counterintelligence raid by security agencies based on credible information of his involvement in subversive and terror-related activities. Officials claim he is a serving officer of the Indian Navy working for the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s prime intelligence agency.
That claim was confirmed in a video confession by Jadhav while he was interrogated. He was subsequently sentenced to death on April 10. When negotiations for his release between the two countries stalled, the Indian government approached the International Court of Justice in May and took a stay on his execution. New Delhi has repeatedly rejected Islamabad’s evidence as “false propaganda” and requested consular access to Jadhav, which Pakistan refuses.
Speaking to Arab News, former Pakistan High Commissioner to India Aziz Ahmed Khan said: “Normally spies are not given consular access.”
Jadhav has pleaded for mercy, a decision which is pending with Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa after his appeals were rejected by military court. 
The offer of allowing his wife to meet the spy was made by Pakistan but India accepted this only after its demand was met to also allow Jadhav’s mother and an Indian diplomat to travel for the meeting.
Arab News asked Khan if Pakistan would use Jadhav as leverage to force India to the table for talks on decades-old disputes which remain unresolved between the two nuclear-armed rivals. Relations have soured while border skirmishes continue and India maintains a silent treatment policy toward Pakistan.
“Pakistan would like India to hold meaningful dialogue but forcing India does not serve the purpose,” Khan said.