LAHORE: The federal government has renewed its efforts to extradite the Evacuee Trust Property Board’s former chairman and PPP leader Syed Asif Hashmi from Dubai.

A senior official told Dawn on Monday that on the request of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), the foreign ministry had ordered its Middle East director general to hire a lawyer for completing the process of Mr Hashmi’s extradition.

The FIA also asked the ministry to depute officers who knew the relevant legal facts well so that they could pursue the case in the Dubai public prosecution department to get ‘irrelevant objections’ in this regard removed.

Mr Hashmi was arrested in the first week of April last by Dubai police’s Interpol wing. The Interpol had acted on the request of the FIA in Rs1 billion ETPB­-DHA deal scam. The Dubai police, however, later released him as the Pakistani government reportedly failed to provide ‘certain legal documents’ required for supporting the extradition case.

According to a letter written to the foreign ministry by ETPB chairman Siddiqul Farooq, the Dubai authorities asked for a ‘judicial request’ for his (Hashmi) extradition. “This has not been demanded in any earlier cases. However, the FIA still made a reference to the presiding judge who refused to issue such direction on the grounds that he is not competent to do so and also the perpetual warrant of arrest already issued is a judicial request,” the letter reads.

In a letter to the Pakistani Embassy in Abu Dhabi, a lawyer, the Pakistani government intends to hire, said Mr Hashmi could only be extradited under the Extradition Treaty between Pakistan and UAE if a court in Pakistan had sentenced him to imprisonment for a period of not less than six months or his acts fell in a crime category punishable by imprisonment for a period not less than one year under the both Pakistan and UAE laws. But none of the conditions was met at present, he added.

According to the Article 7 of the Treaty, he said, an extradition request must be supported by documents and statements regarding the facts, the crime, its punishment and the time limit for prosecution or execution of punishment.

On the other hand, Mr Hashmi has sent a legal notice to the advisor to the prime minister on foreign affairs, Sartaj Aziz, alleging that his office is being ‘misused’ for an illegal pursuit based on ‘wrong and twisted’ facts.

Mr Hashmi also alleged that the incumbent ETPB chairman had a “personal vendetta” against him. “No judicial authority has required my extradition but the ETPB chairman is misusing the investigating authority through political pressure,” Hashmi said, urging Mr Aziz not to play in the hands of the board chairman and personally go through the “genuine facts” of the case.

Mr Hashmi further said that since not a single penny was recoverable from him in the ETPB-DHA land deal, the elements keen to hire legal counsel in UAE against millions of rupees had no justification.

He said the investigation authority was being misled regarding issuance of Red Warrants. “No court had ever issued red warrants against me, nor it was published through newspaper advertisements. I have never been convicted in any case in Pakistan,” Mr Hashmi claimed.

Both FIA and National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had booked Mr Hashmi in connection with alleged land, housing and recruitment illegalities.

The main case against him is the board’s shoddy deal with the DHA, Lahore. The DHA had acquired ETPB’s 843 kanal land located in Mauza Mota Singhwala and Mauza Lidhar (where Phase­-VI of the DHA has been developed). The ETPB had allegedly agreed to receive only 25 percent of the ‘undeveloped’ plots, instead of 33pc, thus benefiting the DHA.

As the case landed with the FIA, the DHA agreed to revise the deal agreeing to develop 33pc of the plots and not receiving development charges from the ETPB in order to compensate the loss which was approximately over Rs1 billion.

Mr Hashmi had taken the plea that the entire ETPB board had approved and recommended in April 2009 the transfer of land with 25pc exemption of plots, thus having endorsement of the federal government which had also conducted a special audit of the board affairs twice during his tenure.

Mr Hashmi remained the ETPB chairman between December 2008 and March 2013. Soon after completion of his tenure he left for Dubai.

Published in Dawn, November 15th, 2016