RAWALPINDI: Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed on Wednesday said that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif could not be extradited as there was no such agreement between Pakistan and the UK.

“I am standing with the cabinet’s decision of extradition of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif but I think it is not possible because there is no such agreement between the two countries,” he said.

“Prime Minister Imran Khan feels he has been cheated on sending Nawaz Sharif abroad for medical treatment,” he said while talking to media persons after inaugurating a new building of the Postgraduate College for Women on 6th Road.

The Punjab government has released Rs400 million for the construction of new block of the college which be named as Sheikh Rashid Ahmed Block.

He said in the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) related legislation, the government did not get defeat but in fact it had exposed the opposition.

He said that opposition wanted to dissolve National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and it was its only agenda.

The minister pointed out rifts among the opposition parties.

“Yesterday’s meeting between JUI-F leader Maulana Fazalur Rehman and PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif also showed that there was a trust deficit between the two leaders,” he said.

Replying to a question, he said: “Rs70 billion are being spent on Leh Expressway and I am thankful to Chief Minister Usman Buzdar for giving priority to this project. “I came back from the brink of death after contracting coronavirus and worked as much as I could. The maternity hospital is 70pc completed. Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) did not spend a penny at the hospital where Benazir Bhutto died.

“Tenders of the Main Line-1 (ML-1) project will be announced with a delay of five days on August 31.

Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2020