Pakistan said on Saturday it received the visa applications of former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav’s wife and mother and was processing them.
“Visa applications of mother and wife of Commander Jadhav received for their visit on humanitarian grounds,” Pakistan’s Foreign Office Spokesperson Mohammad Faisal said on Twitter. However, he did not reveal how long it would take to process the applications.
The visit has been arranged after weeks of talks between the two countries, and eight months after Jadhav, 47, was sentenced to death for espionage and terrorism, after a secret trial by a Pakistani military court.
India moved the International Court of Justice against the verdict in May after which the court halted his execution on India’s appeal. A final verdict is pending.
At the International Court of Justice on December 13, Pakistan rejected India’s plea to let Jadhav have consular access, claiming that New Delhi wanted it to get information gathered by its “spy.” Pakistan said as Jadhav is accused of espionage, his case does not come under the purview of the Vienna Convention. India had demanded consular access under the rules of the Convention, an international treaty on consular relations between independent states.
A day later, India reacted saying, “Mr Jadhav remains in Pakistan and is facing a death sentence awarded through a farcical process and concocted charges”.
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