July 27, 2007	Friday	Rajab 11, 1428

ISLAMABAD, July 26: The residents of Margalla Towers, which partly collapsed during the October 8, 2005 earthquake, on Thursday demanded that the British government should extradite the owner/builder of the towers, so that he could face the law for substandard construction.

The residents forwarded their demand while staging a protest demonstration during British Foreign Secretary David Miliband’s visit to Pakistan.

The residents criticised what they called the indifferent attitude of the British government on the cases of Ramzan Khokhar, owner/builder, his wife Kehkeshan Khokhar and architect engineer Hafeez Sheikh who are reportedly living in the UK.

“The British government was provided all the relevant documents for the extradition of these criminals who were responsible for the tragedy of Margalla Towers,” the residents said.

Some 72 people were killed and 89 others injured when 38 apartments of the building collapsed during the killer earthquake.

The prime minister’s inspection commission in its report had held the owner/builder responsible for poor construction of the building.

Earlier, a delegation of Royal Prosecution Service visited Pakistan to get the required documents for the extradition of the accused. However, even after the lapse of almost six months the accused have not been extradited, the affected persons said.

They said although there was no extradition treaty between Pakistan and the UK, there were precedences when the two countries exchanged wanted people in special cases.

Pakistan extradited three British nationals involved in a murder case, while Mirza Tahir, a British national who was convicted in a murder case and was about to be hanged in the Adiala Jail Rawalpindi, was handed over to the UK government on the intervention of Prince Charles and former prime minister Tony Blair.

A spokesman for the Margalla Towers Residents’ Action Committee said Britain must realise the fact that the Supreme Court of Pakistan had already ordered the arrest of Ramzan Khokhar and others.