New Delhi/Islamabad: Pakistan is a peace-loving country which wants good relations with neighbours, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said on Tuesday amid rising tensions over the death sentence handed to Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav.
“Pakistan is a peace loving country. It has maintained good relations with its neighbours. We want cooperation, not conflicts. Pakistan will not hesitate to extend a hand of friendship," he said, indicating that the civilian leadership was not fully on board the decision of the military courts to sentence Jadhav to death.
Sharif, however, added that Pakistan’s armed forces “were fully capable of and prepared" to respond to any threat.
The Pakistani military had on Tuesday announced that an army court has sentenced Jadhav to death after finding him guilty of "espionage and sabotage activities" and the army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa has approved his execution.
Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has said the death sentence should serve as a warning to those "plotting" against the country. The defence minister further said that Jadhav's "confession" was a public document and if India raises the issue of his death sentence, Islamabad will reply to New Delhi.
Reacting strongly, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar in New Delhi summoned Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit and gave a demarche, which said the proceedings that have led to the sentence against Jadhav are "farcical in the absence of any credible evidence" against him.
New Delhi has said it will regard as "premeditated murder" if Pakistan carries out the death sentence against Jadhav "without observing basic norms of law and justice".
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