NEW DELHI: Effectively ruling out consular access to Indian RAW agent Kulbhushan Jadhav, who is facing death sentence, Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit has said that Islamabad will go by domestic laws and not Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, 1963 (VCCR) in deciding on India’s plea for a meeting with Jadhav. .
In an exclusive interaction to Times of India, Basit also made a strong pitch for starting the December 2015 Composite Bilateral Dialogue (CBD) which, he insisted, was the right way of addressing even India’s concerns on cross-border terrorism, including the delay in Mumbai trial and lack of progress in Pathankot airbase attack case. Basit accused India for the delay in Mumbai trial saying that progress was linked to the need for Pakistan authorities to examine 24 Indian witnesses.
India has requested for consular access to Jadhav on 16 occasions. Basit, however, said the Vienna Convention, to which Pakistan is party, cannot get precedence over domestic laws.
To underline the significance of dialogue even in these difficult times, he recalled the Swedish proverb that those who wish to sing always find a song.
