Pakistan on Thursday said it was studying a visa application of the mother of Kulbhushan Jadhav to meet him, who was sentenced to death by a military court on the charges of espionage and terrorism. India had requested Pakistan to allow Avantika Jadhav to meet her son.
“Pakistan is considering the Indian request for the grant of visa to the mother of Kulbushan Yadav,” Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Nafees Zakaria was quoted as saying by state-run Radio Pakistan.
However, the Ministry of External Affairs said India had not got any information on change in visa and consular positions in the Jadhav case.
Mr. Zakaria’s remarks came two days after External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said she had written a “personal letter” to Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz asking for the approval of Ms. Avantika’s visa application so that she may travel to Pakistan. The Minister also said that Mr. Aziz did not even respond to her letter.
“I wrote a personal letter to Mr Sartaj Aziz for the grant of her visa to Pakistan. However, Mr Aziz has not shown the courtesy even to acknowledge my letter,” she had tweeted.
However, Mr.Zakaria said that asking for recommendations from Mr. Aziz to grant visas was against “diplomatic norms”, Dawn newspaper reported. He also accused New Delhi of imposing “conditions” for the approval of medical visas of Pakistani patients travelling to India.
Pakistan claims its security forces arrested Jadhav from its restive Balochistan province on March 3 last year after he reportedly entered from Iran.
However, India maintains that he was kidnapped from Iran where he had business interests after retiring from the Navy. Pakistan has dismissed India’s consular access request to Jadhav more than 15 times. India has accused Pakistan of repeatedly violating the Vienna Convention by doing so.
India approached the International Court of Justice in May seeking provisional stay of Jadhav's execution, which was granted.
Published - July 13, 2017 06:44 pm IST
