PAK MAY GIVE JADHAV’S MOTHER A VISA
ISLAMABAD/NEWDELHI: Islamabad said on Thursday it is reviewing New Delhi’s request for granting a visa to the mother of Kulbushan Yadav, the former Indian Navy officer sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court for alleged espionage.
Foreign Office spokesperson Nafees Zakaria told a weekly news briefing, “The pending visa application of Jadhav’s mother is currently under review.” He did not say when a decision is likely in the matter.
Jadhav’s mother, Avantika Jadhav, had submitted a visa application at the Pakistan high commission in New Delhi soon after her son was sentenced to death in April. She also sent a mercy petition and an appeal for her son to be freed to the Pakiprogress” stan government through the Indian mission in Islamabad.
External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj has written a “personal letter” to Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan’s foreign policy chief, about Avantika’s visa application. On Monday, Swaraj used strong words to hit out at Aziz for not having “the courtesy even to acknowledge” her letter.
During a news briefing in New Delhi, external affairs ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay said there was “no on India’s request for consular access to Jadhav.
The Indian government has not heard from Pakistan through diplomatic channels on the request for a visa for Jadhav’s mother, he added.
Baglay was responding to a question about the Pakistan Foreign Office’s comment that the visa request was being considered. Pakistan has repeatedly turned down India’s requests for consular access to Jadhav.
At the briefing in Islamabad, Zakaria expressed regret at what he described as India’s “strict restrictions” on granting visas to Pakistanis who wanted to travel to India for medical treatment.
Under new Indian rules, medical visas will be issued only if the applications are endorsed by Sartaj Aziz, the Prime Minister’s advisor on foreign affairs.