ISLAMABAD: The Charge d’Affaires of Indian High Commission, Gaurav Ahluwalia, met a convicted spy from his country, Kulbhushan Jadhav, on Monday, as Pakistan provided consular access to the Indian prisoner on death row in line with a recent International Court of Justice (ICJ) verdict in the case.
“As a responsible member of the international community and in line with our international commitments, Pakistan has provided un-impeded, uninterrupted consular access to India to Commander Jadhav,” Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in an official statement.
Confirming the development, the Spokesperson of India’s External Affairs Ministry, Raveesh Kumar, said: “While we await a comprehensive report, it was clear that Shri Jadhav appeared to be under extreme pressure to parrot a false narrative to bolster Pakistan’s untenable claims. We will decide a further course of action after receiving a detailed report from our Cd’A and determining the extent of conformity to the ICJ directives.”
Pakistan announced on Sunday it would grant consular access to “Kulbhushan Jadhav, a serving Indian naval officer and RAW operative … on Monday 2 September 2019” in a Twitter post.
The ICJ in its July 17 verdict had asked Pakistan to provide consular access to Jadhav under the Vienna Convention, though it had also rejected India’s request of his acquittal, release and return.
Talking to Arab News, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Brig (r) Ejaz Shah said the decision to provide consular access was taken right after the ICJ decision and it was not appropriate to retract it after the Modi administration’s August 5 Kashmir move.
“You have to behave like a responsible, honorable and honest nation. If we will say that after Modi’s actions in Kashmir we will not give consular access [to India] then what will be the difference between us and Modi,” he said.
Pakistan’s Attorney General Anwar Mansoor Khan told Arab News that if there was any requirement for further consular access, it would be provided after analyzing the reason.
“If there will be any requirement for further counselor access, we will provide it. If there is no proper requirement, we won’t allow it just for the sake of a meeting. The ICJ has not said anything about the frequency of access. Legally, counselor access is only given once and we have done that,” Khan added.
However, Pakistan’s former high commissioner to New Delhi, Abdul Basit, doubted that Monday’s meeting would satisfy India. “Eventually India will say that Pakistan has not been able to provide effective review and reconsideration of the whole trial as it was asked by the ICJ,” he told Arab News.
Basit added that Pakistan had to decide what constituted “effective review.”
“The ICJ used the word ‘effective review,’ and left it to Pakistan to decide. So now it is up to us how we define the effective review: Whether anti-terrorism court will take the review plea or some high court.”
Jadhav was arrested on March 3, 2016, in a counter-intelligence operation in Balochistan. He was awarded death sentence on April 10, 2017, by a Field General Court Martial in Pakistan. India approached the ICJ in May 2017 against Pakistan, complaining it was denied consular access to Jadhav.
