TOKYO, March 1: Pakistan on Friday said it reserved the right to put the confessed mastermind behind the abduction of murdered US journalist Daniel Pearl on trial in one of its own courts.

Pakistan Foreign Secretary Inam-ul-Haque said his government was still considering US request to extradite British-born militant Shaikh Omar, the confessed organiser of Pearl’s kidnapping.

“I am not ruling out the possibilities of extradition,” Haque told a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan. “The government is examining the request.”

But he added Pakistan has “the first right” to try to punish Omar in a domestic court.

Washington has stepped up pressure on the Pakistan government to extradite Omar, while offering a five-million-dollar reward for information on the Wall Street Journal correspondent’s killers.

Britain said on Thursday it would not object to the London-born Omar’s extradition.

Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan confirmed on Thursday that extradition “has been discussed” between Islamabad and Washington, but added: “For the moment we will continue with our investigations.”

In the wake of Pearl’s abduction and gruesome murder, Haque also promised his government would make “maximum efforts to provide protection for all Pakistanis and non-Pakistani residents in Pakistan.”

But he continued: “Certain basic precautions should also be taken by those who are living in Pakistan because the threat certainly has not disappeared completely.”

Haque, Pakistan’s most senior foreign ministry mandarin, was visiting Tokyo to prepare a visit to Japan by President Pervez Musharraf later this month.—AFP