Pak renders Jadhav meet meaningless

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 16

Officials of the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, who were offered consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav today, protested against Pakistan reneging on earlier assurances and left the venue after lodging a protest.

During backchannel talks on access to Jadhav that began on Monday, Pakistani diplomats had assured the Indian interlocutors that no one would be posted in Jadhav’s vicinity during the meeting with Indian officials. There would also be no recording of the meeting.

However, Indian consular officials not only found Pakistani officials in close proximity to Jadhav, but also detected a camera for recording the conversation. Jadhav too was under visible stress and indicated that to the consular officials.

“The arrangements did not permit a free conversation between them… in the light of these circumstances, we came to the conclusion that this consular access was neither meaningful nor credible. After lodging a protest, the officers left the venue,” said MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava.

Srivastava recalled that over the past year, India has requested Pakistan more than 12 times to provide unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional consular access to Jadhav, who has been in Pakistani custody since 2016. “It is clear that Pakistan’s approach to this matter continues to be obstructive and insincere,” he alleged.

Indian national on death row

• The retired Navy officer was sentenced to death by a Pak military court for “espionage and terrorism” in April 2017 following which India approached the ICJ
• The ICJ ruled in July last year that Pak must undertake an “effective review” of conviction and must grant consular access to India without any further delay