Jadhav is on a death row after a military court sentenced him to death on April 2017 on the charges of espionage and terrorism.
After turning down India’s request for consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav more than 15 times since he was arrested on March 3, 2016, Pakistan on Friday finally blinked. It announced that it will allow Jadhav’s wife to meet him in jail.
“The Government of Pakistan has decided to arrange a meeting of Commander Kulbhushan Jadhav with his wife, in Pakistan, purely on humanitarian grounds. A Note Verbale to this effect has been sent to the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, today (Friday),” a release said tersely.
Earlier, Islamabad had said it was studying his mother, Avantika Jadhav’s, visa application to travel to Pakistan.
Jadhav is on a death row after a military court sentenced him to death on April 2017 on the charges of espionage and terrorism. A month later, the Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) stayed the sentence.
While India had officially requested Pakistan to allow Avantika to meet her son, the release issued by the Pakistan Foreign Office doesn’t mention her; it only mentions allowing his wife. She had also moved a visa application in July 2016. The family approached the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi once again when Jadhav was sentenced, but it didn’t reciprocate.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had even written a ‘personal letter’ to Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz, asking for approval of Avantika’s visa application. While it is not clear what prompted Islamabad to allow Jhadav’s wife to meet him, there is speculation that the two countries discussed the issue in a recent meeting between Sawraj and the newly-appointed Pakistani high commissioner to New Delhi, Sohail Mahmood.
Meanwhile, Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD) welcomed the decision and asked for the setting up of a mechanism to allow relatives of all arrested persons to meet them.
“It is a step in the right direction and it will send a positive message,” said Jatin Desai, conveyer of the Forum. He asked Islamabad to show similar magnanimity to the parents of Mumbai-based engineer, Hamid Ansari, who is also in a Pakistani jail.
“We also believe that both the countries must allow relatives of all arrested persons, including fishermen, to meet them,” said Desai. “Ideally, both the countries should release all the fishermen, women from their custody. India-Pakistan Judicial Committee on Prisoners had also unanimously recommended this step.”
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