Pakistan to provide consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav today
New Delhi : At a time when tension between India and Pakistan is at its peak, the latter will be providing consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav, an Indian national in their custody.
India is yet to comment on the offer, which has happened for the second time in this year.
Announcing the latest decision Sunday, Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mohammad Faisal posted on Twitter: “Consular access for Indian spy Commander Kulbhushan Jadhav, a serving Indian naval officer and RAW operative, is being provided on Monday 2 September 2019, in line with Vienna Convention on Consular relations, ICJ judgement & the laws of Pakistan. Commander Jadhav remains in Pakistan’s custody, for espionage, terrorism and sabotage.”
India has always been refusing Pakistan's claims on Kulbhushan Jadav's occupational status, saying that he had retired from Indian Navy a long time back and he was on his personal business tour to Iran where he was abducted and shifted 'illegally' to Pakistan.
According to sources, negotiations between Delhi and Islamabad have been over “privacy” during the meeting between Indian officials and Jadhav. “We don’t want anyone to listen in on our conversation (with Jadhav),” sources said.
India has argued that Article 36, Paragraph 1(a) of the Vienna Convention says that “consular officers shall be free to communicate with nationals of the sending state and to have access to them. Nationals of the sending state shall have the same freedom with respect to communication with and access to consular officers of the sending state.” In this case, India is the “sending state”.
But Islamabad has said that it will follow “Pakistan’s laws” since Article 36, Paragraph 2 says that “the rights referred to in Paragraph 1 of this Article shall be exercised in conformity with the laws and regulations of the receiving state, subject to the proviso, however, that the said laws and regulations must enable full effect to be given to the purposes for which the rights accorded under this Article are intended.”
