MULTAN: Clearing the air on the issue of providing consular access to captured Indian spy-terrorist, Kulbhushan Jadhav, and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said that the government is acting upon the order of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and accused the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) of botching the Jadhav case.

Talking to media here on Sunday, Foreign Minister Qureshi said that the government gave consular access to the captured Indian spy, who was serving in Indian Navy and was a RAW operative before his capture, in line with the directives of the ICJ verdict. He hoped that the decision would lead us to success in the International Court.

He said that India did not want us to give its intelligence operative consular access. “India wants to take the Jadhav case back to ICJ and wants to spoil the case,” Qureshi maintained.

The foreign minister wanted the opposition parties not to take the bait and to understand India’s gimmick and stop damaging the case. Jadhav was captured in a counter-intelligence operation on March 3, 2016 in Balochistan. He was handed a death sentence by a military court on April 10, 2017 when he confessed to his involvement in the terrorist and espionage activities on Pakistani soil.

In June 2017, Jadhav entered the mercy plea and again confessed to his subversive activities in Pakistan. Before Pakistan could decide on his case, India approached ICJ which stayed his execution. Though the International Court set aside India’s plea for Jadhav acquittal, but it asked Pakistan government to provide the spy consular access under the Geneva Convention in its July 17, 2019 verdict.

Qureshi reiterated that Pakistan will neither provide its military or air bases to the US nor permit it to conduct air strikes within the country.

Pakistan, under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan, would never provide its bases to the US.

Earlier, the Foreign Office had also stated that there was no US military or air base in Pakistan and nor was any such proposal envisaged.

Responding to media queries, the foreign office spokesman had said that any speculation on this account was baseless and irresponsible and should be avoided.

On the meeting of G7 countries in Britain, the foreign minister said that it was heartening to note if wealthy countries of G7 would take steps to bring development and progress in the developing countries. He said China was not facing any competition regarding investment in the development schemes in the developing countries by other countries. He said China was doing its work on CPEC and it would continue its work.

Qureshi said whoever was passing through the process of accountability, he should be given right to explain his position. No one should be denied this right, he added.

He said the PTI government wanted transparent accountability, stressing that it did not believe in revenge. He maintained that if anybody tried to put hurdles in the course of accountability, then Prime Minister Imran Khan would not give him NRO.

Ruling out the impression of political victimization of opponents under the name of accountability, Qureshi said, the incumbent government wants transparent accountability system across the country.

He advised PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari to clarify his position in the graft cases.

Responding to critics on the federal budget 2021-22, he asked the PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal to go through the budget document carefully, before commenting on anything.

Qureshi said that Saudi Arabia again put a ban on foreign pilgrims to perform the annual Hajj this year due to Covid-19 pandemic. He said this year, only the Saudi nationals or people already staying in the kingdom could perform Hajj.

On bringing mini-budget after a few months of the new fiscal, the minister categorically denied that the government was bringing any mini budget.

Talking about providing land and air bases to America, the foreign minister said there was no truth in these reports. ‘Pakistan has no intention to provide its bases to USA,’ Mr Qureshi said. He said CIA Chief’s visit to Pakistan was not a secret mission. He said it was neither his first nor last trip to Pakistan.