Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Accountability Shahzad Akbar on Tuesday claimed that British authorities have agreed to extradite former finance minister Ishaq Dar to Pakistan under a memorandum of understanding.

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Akbar said that an agreement in this regard has been reached, but extradition documents for Dar have yet to be signed.

He said that following the ratification of the document, Dar will be repatriated to Pakistan after being produced before a magistrate.

Akbar said that the entire process will be completed soon.

Read more: How much is Ishaq Dar worth, in his own assessment?

On June 14, Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry had said that the process for extradition of former finance minister Ishaq Dar, Hassan Nawaz and Hussain Nawaz would be initiated soon.

The former information minister had said that negotiations had been made with the home department of the UK in the past two weeks for extradition of Dar and the two sons of Nawaz Sharif. He had added that there was a positive response from the UK government in this regard.

Dar was declared an absconder by the Supreme Court in 2017, when he failed to appear before it since he was in London, allegedly undergoing medical treatment. His absence was first attributed to ill health on Oct 30, 2017.

Subsequently, local authorities had approached the UK Home Office. Later, British authorities had sent some questions regarding Dar's return to the country, and these questions had been forwarded to NAB.

The incumbent government, in Oct 2018, had expedited efforts to bring Dar back.

'Assets beyond known income'

On July 28, 2018, a five-member Supreme Court bench had ordered NAB to file three references against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and one against Dar, on petitions filed by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s Imran Khan, Jamaat-i-Islami’s Sirajul Haq and Awami Muslim League’s Sheikh Rashid Ahmed.

In its reference against the finance minister, NAB had alleged that “the accused has acquired assets and pecuniary interests/resources in his own name and/or in the name of his dependents of an approximate amount of Rs831.678 million (approx)”.

The reference alleged that the assets were “disproportionate to his known sources of income for which he could not reasonably account for”.