ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qur­eshi on Thursday scoffed at India for antagonising its neighbours.

“Be it Pakistan, China, Nepal, or Bangladesh, Ind­ia’s ties with its neighbours are gradually becoming tense,” Mr Qureshi said in a statement issued in Urdu.

He said the extremist ‘Hindutva’ mindset of the ruling BJP was behind India’s problems in ties with neighbouring countries.

“Iran has removed India from Chabahar projects,” the foreign minister said in reference to Tehran dropping India from an important railway project linking the Chabahar port with Zaranj in Afghanistan via Zahedan. India had been reluctant to invest in the project because of US sanctions.

Tehran is further likely to exclude India from a gas field development project.

India’s involvement in Chabahar and its related projects has been an irritant in the Pak-Iran cooperation as Islamabad always viewed Delhi’s involvement in these projects with suspicion.

Mr Qureshi said the ‘shining India image’ Delhi had tried to put up had been destroyed because of the BJP government’s own policies.

The foreign minister’s statement came a day after Prime Minister Imran Khan made a rare call to his Bang­ladesh counterpart Hasina Wajed after almost a decade of a deep freeze in ties.

The development is being seen in Islamabad as a major breakthrough beca­use Bangladesh was one of the staunchest Indian allies in the neighbourhood and the progress towards normalisation has come at a time when Dhaka-Delhi ties have turned lukewarm.

The foreign minister said Pakistan desired better ties with Dhaka while forgetting the acrimonious past.

He said UN General Asse­mbly President Tijjani Muham­mad-Bande is due to visit Pakistan on Monday and he would explain the situation in occupied Kashmir to him.

Meanwhile, FO spokes­per­son Aisha Farooqui, while talking about the situation in India-held Kas­h­mir at the weekly med­ia briefing, said: “Bruta­li­sation and subjugation of inn­ocent people in the Ind­ian occupied Jammu and Kas­h­mir continues unabated. Fake encounters and phony cordon and search operations continue unabated”.

She further said that ceasefire violations at the Line of Control by India using artillery fire, heavy-caliber mortars and automatic weapons have continued unabated and so far 1,732 ceasefire breaches have been recorded this year resulting in martyrdom of 14 civilians and serious injuries to another 134.

Jadhav case

The spokesperson said that India has not as yet responded to Pakistan’s offer for third consular access to its spy Kulbhushan Jadhav, who is in Pakistani custody and has been convicted and sentenced to death for espionage.

Pakistan had on July 17 offered India another consular access opportunity after Indian diplomats walked out of the second meeting with Jadhav because of reservations over the presence of a security guard in the meeting. Islamabad had also agreed to a meeting between Indian diplomats and Jadhav without presence of security personnel.

Consular access to Jadhav had been allowed in compliance with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) verdict last year.

“We hope that rather than using its usual dilatory and obfuscatory tactics, India will cooperate with Pakistan’s courts to give effect to the Judgment of the ICJ,” Ms Farooqui said.

The ICJ had also called for a review of Jadhav’s conviction and sentence in espionage case by a civilian court. In this regard a special ordinance was enacted to allow foreigners, their authorised representatives or consular officials of the mission of their country, to seek a review by the High Court of conviction and sentences awarded by a military court in instances in which the ICJ has ruled about their rights under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of 1963 or they feel that they had been deprived of their rights under the Convention.

The ordinance has come under severe criticism by opposition parties.

Both Jadhav and the Indian government were invited to seek review proceedings by the Islamabad High Court.

Ms Farooqui said: “Neither has done so till date”. The government has, therefore, asked [the] Islamabad High Court for the appointment of a lawyer for Jadhav so that review proceedings could be initiated.

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2020