Kulbhushan Jadhav/FILE
Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Friday said he was willing to provide third consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav. The statement comes a day after India said the second consular access to Jadhav was "neither meaningful nor credible".
Earlier on Thursday, Pakistan provided second consular access to Jadhav, a 50-year-old retired Indian Navy officer, who was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of espionage and terrorism in April 2017. The Indian government said the second access was "neither meaningful nor credible," and Jadhav appeared visibly under stress.
External Affairs Ministry said that the consular officers were not given unimpeded, unhindered, and unconditional access" to Jadhav. However, Pakistan Foreign Minister Qureshi said the Indian consular officers were provided access to Jadhav as desired by New Delhi.
Qureshi said Pakistan was willing to provide yet another consular access to India, The Express Tribune reported.
“They had objected over the presence of security officials during the meeting, we are willing even to remove those officials. If India wants another access then our offer is open. If they (India) want to meet him tonight or tomorrow, we are ready,” the paper quoted Qureshi as telling a news channel.
However, there was no official confirmation neither from India nor from Pakistan whether the decision was conveyed to New Delhi.
India approached the International Court of Justice against Pakistan for denial of consular access to Jadhav and challenging the death sentence.
The Hague-based ICJ ruled in July last year that Pakistan must undertake an "effective review and reconsideration" of the conviction and sentence of Jadhav and also to grant consular access to India without further delay.
The first consular access under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations 1963 was earlier provided by Pakistan on September 2 last year.
Though Pakistan Foreign ministry had assured India that the consular access on Thursday would be unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional, it turned out that the arrangements of the meeting were not in accordance with the assurances made by Islamabad, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Srivastava said.
Pakistan claims that its security forces arrested Jadhav from the restive Balochistan province on March 3, 2016 after he reportedly entered from Iran.
India maintains that Jadhav was kidnapped from Iran where he had business interests after retiring from the Navy.
(With PTI inputs)
