NEW DELHI: Ending weeks of protests over the harassment of diplomats in each other’s countries, India and Pakistan on Friday agreed to resolve “matters related to the treatment of diplomats and diplomatic premises, in line with the 1992 ‘Code of Conduct for the treatment of diplomatic/consular personnel in India and Pakistan’.”
Earlier in the month, Pakistan’s high commissioner Sohail Mahmood had gone to Islamabad to brief his government over the alleged harassment and intimidation of not just Pakistani diplomats but also their families in New Delhi. India claimed that its diplomats in Islamabad faced severe interference in their work, and both sides exchanged several note verbales listing out instances of harassment almost on a daily basis.
The 1992 Code of Conduct, signed by then foreign secretaries J N Dixit and Shaharyar M Khan, lays down norms over and above the Vienna Convention and other global laws on diplomats. These include ensuring “the dignity and personal inviolability of diplomatic/ consular personnel…. In particular, threat or recourse to physical violence against an official of the mission and his family shall not be resorted to under any pretext or circumstances.”