Pakistan accepts India's demand, Kulbhushan Jadhav will get counselor access

New delhi date. 16 July 2020, Thursday

Pakistan has accepted India's demand for access to another counselor for Kulbhushan Jadhav. India had sought counselor access to Pakistan without any hindrance on the issue of Jadhav lodged in a Pakistani jail. Jadhav will now be allowed to reach two officials of the Indian Embassy in Pakistan.

India had made this demand to Pakistan while filing a review petition in the International Court of Justice. Although Pakistan has rejected Jadhav's demand to meet him alone but has allowed 2 officers to reach Jadhav.

Counselor access time was given at 4.30pm. The place where Jadhav is imprisoned has been declared a sub-jail. A review petition can now be filed from Jadhav within 60 days. Review is allowed within 60 days as per local rules.

Aisha Farooqi, a spokeswoman for the Pakistan Foreign Office, said Jadhav would brief the Pakistani media on the issue of counselor access. We hope that India will cooperate with Pakistan in the Jadhav case.

Indian High Commission officials met with the Director General of South Asia at the Pakistan Foreign Office in connection with granting access to a second counselor access to Kulbhushan. However, many of India's demands were not met by Pakistan, including a one-on-one meeting with Jadhav.

Jadhav was met by Indian officials last year

On September 2, 2019, Pakistan granted consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav for the first time. He was met by Deputy High Commissioner of India Gaurav Ahluwalia in Islamabad at the time. After the meeting, India said that Pakistan was putting a lot of pressure on Kulbhushan Jadhav to make a false statement. This was India's first diplomatic visit to Jadhav since his arrest in 2016.