New Delhi: Pakistan on Thursday offered consular access to Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav 10 days after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague directed Islamabad to do so.
Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar confirmed that Delhi had received such a proposal. "We are evaluating it in the light of the judgement of the ICJ, we will maintain communication with Pakistan in this matter through diplomatic channels," Kumar said at a weekly briefing here. "This is not the appropriate forum to discuss modalities."
Jadhav, 49, was arrested in March 2016 by Pakistani authorities and sentenced to death in April 2017 on “espionage and terrorism” charges. He was sentenced to death after a closed trial.
On July 17, the ICJ had stated that Pakistan had violated the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, 1963, by failing to inform Jadhav of his right to communicate with the Indian consular post.
After the verdict, Pakistan had assured that it will comply with it and put on hold the death sentence. A day after the ruling, Islamabad said Jadhav had been informed of his rights under Article 36, Paragraph 1(b) of the Vienna Convention.
The Pakistan foreign ministry had stated that “modalities are being worked out” to grant him consular access.
"Pakistan is awaiting Indian response after it formally informed the Indian High Commission here," Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Faisal said at his weekly media briefing.
India had last made a request for consular access to Jadhav on April 2017, which was the 16th application made to Pakistan. It is when Islamabad failed to respond even then that India filed a case at the ICJ in May 2017.
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