September 30, 2006	Saturday	Ramazan 6, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Sept 29: Pakistan and the United Kingdom have decided to form a joint working group (JWG), in December 2006, with a view to countering terrorism and controlling trans-national crimes, a source in the interior ministry told Dawn on Friday.

The source said the UK authorities had invited Secretary Interior Syed Kamal Shah on a visit to London in December this year to sign an agreement. The JWG is being formed on the recommendation of Pakistan, the source added.

The source said before the visit of the secretary interior to the UK, a draft of the JWG will be finalised and be sent to London for approval by the UK Government before signing by the two sides.

The UK’s Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Dr Kim Howells, who recently visited Pakistan, held meetings with interior ministry and foreign ministry officials and discussed different aspects of the JWG.

A senior official of the interior ministry told Dawn that Britain’s Home Secretary John Reid had wrote a letter to the interior ministry showing consent to form JWP. The official said Pakistan had already signed similar document with 20 other countries, including the United States.

“Formation of JWG will help control terrorism, trans-national crimes, money laundering and human smuggling,” the official added. Responding to a question about extradition treaty between the two countries, he said the JWG had nothing to do with the extradition treaty. However, Pakistan and the UK were also working on signing an extradition treaty and a lot of work had already been done.