Pakistan offers third consular access to India for Kulbhushan Jadhav

Pakistan on Friday once again offered India consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav, a former Indian Navy officer, who has been on the death row in a prison in the neighbouring country since April 2017.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan Government sent a note verbale to the High Commission of India (HCI) in Islamabad, offering the third consular access to Jadhav – after the first on September 2, 2019, and the second on Thursday.

New Delhi has not responded to Islamabad’s latest offer till late in the evening.

“They (India) raised objection over the presence of security officials during the meeting (on Thursday), we are willing even to withdraw the officials. If India wants another access, then our offer is open. If they (officials of HCI Islamabad) want to meet him tonight or tomorrow, we are ready,” Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, told a TV channel in the neighbouring country.

The offer for the third consular access came a day after New Delhi lodged a strong protest over the presence of two Pakistan government officials with “intimidating demeanour” during the second meeting between Jadhav and the officials of the HCI in Islamabad.

New Delhi also alleged that the meeting was being recorded. Jadhav, himself, was visibly under stress, the officials of the HCI in Islamabad reported to New Delhi.

The presence of the camera and the officials of the Pakistan Government was contrary to what Islamabad had promised New Delhi and prevented the HCI officials from engaging the former Indian Navy officer on his legal rights and from obtaining his written consent for arranging lawyers for him to file a petition in the High Court in the neighbouring country seeking review of the death sentence awarded to him by a military tribunal three years ago.

Pakistan on May 20 last promulgated an ordinance called the “International Court of Justice Review and Reconsideration Ordinance 2020”, which mandated that a petition for review and reconsideration of conviction by military tribunal could be made to Islamabad High Court through an application within 60 days from the day it was brought into force. The petition could be filed by Jadav, himself, a legally authorised representative of him or a consular officer of the High Commission of India in Islamabad.

The officials of the Pakistan Government had last week claimed that Jadhav had decided against seeking a review of the death sentence awarded to him. New Delhi had then accused the neighbouring country’s government of coercing him to forgo his legal rights.

Jadhav was accused and convicted of being involved in espionage and sabotage in Pakistan on behalf of an external intelligence agency of India.

New Delhi moved the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which on July 17, 2019, concluded that Islamabad had violated the Article 36 of the Vienna Convention of Consular Relations 1963, as it had not informed the Government of India immediately after the Pakistan Army had taken him into custody. The international court found that Pakistan had also flouted the Vienna Convention by declining India's repeated requests for allowing officials of its High Commission in Islamabad to meet him and arrange lawyers to defend him. It also stated that the death sentence awarded to Jadhav by a military court of Pakistan in April 2017 should remain suspended till the review of the conviction.