Pakistan’s Foreign Office on Thursday said that it was working on granting consular access to former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, PTI reported. “We said that consular access will be given and [now] work has been started on that,” Foreign Office Spokesperson Mohammad Faisal said during a press briefing in Islamabad.
On July 18, Pakistan had agreed to grant consular access to Jadhav, who had been given the death penalty by a Pakistani military court on charges of “espionage and terrorism”. “Pursuant to the decision of the ICJ [International Court of Justice], Commander Kulbhushan Jadhav has been informed of his rights under Article 36, Paragraph 1(b) of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations,” Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry had said. “As a responsible state, Pakistan will grant consular access to Commander Kulbhushan Jadhav according to Pakistani laws, for which modalities are being worked out.”
This came a day after the International Court of Justice had concluded that Pakistan had violated the Vienna Convention in its treatment of Jadhav. The court found that Pakistan had breached international laws by not providing consular access to him and ordered Islamabad not to execute Jadhav for now. However, the ICJ also rejected India’s demands for Jadhav to be released, and instead said Pakistan would have to decide how to review the trial and conviction of the Indian.
Meanwhile, Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar on Thursday said that India was expecting “full consular access” for Jadhav. “We expect full consular access and at the earliest, in full compliance with the order of the International Court of Justice and under the Vienna convention,” he said. “We are in touch with Pakistan through diplomatic channels.”
The Pakistan foreign office spokesperson on Thursday also welcomed United States President Donald Trump’s offer to mediate between India and Pakistan on the Kashmir conflict. “Our approach is dialogue based; it is UN-resolutions based and it will remain as such,” PTI quoted Faisal as saying. India had, on Tuesday, denied Trump’s claim that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had requested him to mediate in the Kashmir dispute.
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