FOR the London Metropolitan Police, the obstacles in the way of solving this whodunnit must be baffling. The victim, MQM leader Dr Imran Farooq, sought political asylum in the United Kingdom as a Pakistani citizen. The two men suspected of having killed him in London are also Pakistani citizens and who, media reports said, arrived in Karachi via Colombo soon after the murder on Sept 16, 2010 and were whisked away from the airport by intelligence personnel in whose custody they have been languishing since.

Yet the Pakistani government, which has only recently and somewhat tacitly acknowledged that the men are indeed in its custody, appears to be in no hurry to cooperate. Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan has stated unequivocally that in the absence of an extradition treaty between Pakistan and the United Kingdom, they will not be handed over “unilaterally” to the British authorities and that Pakistan would extend “additional cooperation” only if the UK agreed that this case would become a precedent for it to follow when Pakistan sought extradition of a wanted person in the future.

Although according to the principle of sovereignty Pakistan has jurisdiction over people within its borders, and there is indeed no extradition treaty with the UK at present, the interior minister’s stance does not stand to reason. The government should be keen to see that a crime against a former political leader from Pakistan allegedly carried out by Pakistanis is successfully prosecuted instead of withholding possible evidence as a bargaining chip.

There is already enough evidence to suspect that the revelations about Dr Imran Farooq’s murder have been timed with a view to political expediency rather than driven by the desire for justice to be served. There is nothing to stop the government from pursuing an extradition treaty with the UK to put in place a legal framework for exchange of individuals suspected of committing crimes in each other’s countries; just as there is nothing to prevent it from rising above institutional interests and responding appropriately in the Imran Farooq murder case.

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2015

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