On Friday evening, the government of Pakistan reportedly offered to arrange a meeting between former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav and his wife.
A Pakistani military court sentenced Jadhav to death on charges of espionage and terrorism in 2016. He has filed a petition for mercy with Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa.
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement, “The government of Pakistan has decided to arrange a meeting of Commander Kulbhushan Jadhav with his wife, in Pakistan, purely on humanitarian grounds.”
The statement added that a note verbale to this effect had been sent to the Indian High Commission in Islamabad. There was no immediate formal response.
Having repeatedly been denied consular access to Jadhav — which it claims constitutes a breach of international human rights laws — India petitioned the International Court of Justice (ICJ) earlier this year for a stay of execution, which was granted.
On May 18, the ICJ ruled that Pakistan must not execute Jadhav “pending the final decision in (the ICJ’s) proceedings.”
Jadhav was arrested in March 2016 in the restive southwestern province of Balochistan, which he reportedly entered from Iran.
Pakistan claims that Jadhav — alias Hussain Mubarak Patel — is a serving commander in the Indian Navy, working with Indian intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). India maintains that he was kidnapped from Iran where he was on a business trip, and that he had already retired from the navy.
Friday’s announcement came months after New Delhi asked Islamabad to allow Jadhav’s mother to meet him on humanitarian grounds.
Hassan Askari, a prominent Pakistani analyst, told Arab News: “This is a positive and soft message from the Pakistani government. It is a step in the right direction. Now India needs to decide when it wants to send Jadhav’s wife because both governments are involved in this.”
Sen. Sherry Rehman, Pakistan’s former ambassador to Washington, tweeted, “Good move: Pakistan offers Jadhav’s wife consular access.”
Kamran Murtaza, former President of the Supreme Court Bar Association, told Arab News that Pakistan’s decision to offer Jadhav’s wife the opportunity to visit her husband “will not have any impact on Jadhav’s case at the ICJ, but Islamabad can at least argue that it made an offer to India for the meeting on humanitarian grounds.”
Pakistan has released two video confessions in which Jadhav admits his involvement in “espionage, terrorist and subversive activities” in Pakistan.
India has rejected those videos as “fake.”
Should Gen. Bajwa reject Jadhav’s petition, the prisoner then has 90 days in which to file a mercy petition with Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain