ISLAMABAD, May 25: Pakistan and the United Kingdom are working on an extradition treaty, the British high commissioner, Mark Lyall Grant, said on Tuesday. He said this while presiding over a discussion on 'Islam
, International Law and Emerging Global Order', organized by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS). The IPS has started a series of lectures.
Pakistan and the UK have agreed to have an extradition treaty, however, there are a number of legal issues that are yet to be addressed. In response to a number of questions and comments which were made during the discussion, the high commissioner expressed his disappointment over, what he called, misleading people about the ongoing developments in the world.
"Lets not fall into a trap that only Muslims are being victimized around the world and the West is the oppressor. Unfortunately over the last 12 months, during my stay in Pakistan I have not found a single article/column which talks about the parts of the world where Christians are being killed. What is happening in Sudan and Congo, where governments are killing Christians. To me this propaganda is garbage," Mr Grant said.
Referring to the topic of discussion, he agreed that Muslim scholars over the centuries had made worthwhile contributions to the development of international law.
However, there is a pressing need to introduce Islamic jurisprudence in western universities so that law graduates in the West could also benefit from it. In response to a question, he said the UK knew its responsibility as far as the issues of Palestine and Kashmir was concerned and was playing its role for their peaceful solution.
Earlier, Vice President of the International Islamic University (IIU) Dr Mehmood A. Ghazi comprehensively covered the development of international law both in the Muslim world and the West.
He was of the view that history of international law was as old as human beings, and there had been efforts to regularize relations, be at the community, state or regional levels.
With the advent of Islam, relationship with other communities used to be the cornerstone of successive rulers' foreign policies. "Islamic concept of international law is woven around the respect for basic human rights for everyone without giving any consideration to religion, region or culture," Dr Ghazi said.
He said after the two world wars, international law witnessed a major transformation and unparallel expansion. Chairman of the IPS Prof Khurshid Ahmad, in his opening remarks, briefly dilated upon the international law and emerging global order. He said as far as the Islamic international law was concerned, it had everything in it to honour international agreements and treaties.
