British govt contacted to extradite builder: Towers case
By Syed Irfan Raza
ISLAMABAD, Nov 7: Islamabad has requested the British government for extradition of Margalla Towers builder Ramzan Khokhar and three other accused in connection with the substandard construction of the towers a part of which had collapsed in the October 8 quake, killing 73 people, sources in the Ministry of Interior told Dawn.
The sources said the ministry was using two separate channels to net the accused, who were stated to be in the UK these days. “We have directly requested the UK government for their extradition and secondly the assistance of Interpol has also been sought,” the sources said.
They said though an extradition treaty had not been signed between Pakistan and the UK so far, people wanted on either side were extradited in special cases.
The sources said a letter had been dispatched to the Interpol 10 days back for the issuance of red notice (arrest warrant) of the accused. “Our request is being processed and Interpol is likely to take action on it very soon,” the sources added.
They said the police had traced the residential address of the accused, Ramzan Khokhar, and his wife in London.
Meanwhile, Margalla Towers Residents Action Committee (MTRAC) President Dr Aasem Ch has said that Islamabad police want to arrest the four accused who have already been declared “criminals” by the Supreme Court.
They are Ramzan Khokhar, his wife, structural engineer of the building, Hafeez Sheikh, and architect Azhar Mehmood Qureshi. They all are stated to be in London.
Margalla Towers, the first residential complex in Islamabad constructed as a model multi-storey residential building, was constructed in 1996 and the land was given by the CDA on lease.
Dr Aasem said now the owners of the flats were not being involved in future planning of the complex. The complex had 147 flats of which 38 had collapsed. The price of each flat is stated to be Rs10 million.
