ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Britain have moved closer to signing the extradition treaty as Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed and British High Commissioner Christian Turner reached an understanding to this effect in a meeting here on Tuesday.

If Pakistan succeeds in signing this accord, it will join the club of over 100 countries that have such agreement with the United Kingdom.

Pakistan has been seeking to sign an extradition treaty with the UK for a long time, but the British government had expressed its reluctance to ink any such accord on the grounds that it does not sign extradition treaties with the countries subjected frequently to military rule.

Interior minister, British high commissioner reach an understanding

In June 2019, Britain had told Pakistan that it would not sign any extradition treaty that could be used for politically-motivated cases.

Addressing a joint press conference with Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt had said the two had discussed the issue of an extradition treaty between the UK and Pakistan.

“Let me say it straightforward. The UK will never sign any treaty allowing for politically motivated extradition,” said the British official before FM Qureshi had assured him the Pakistan government did not intend to use the treaty against political rivals.

At the Tuesday meeting, the interior minister highlighted the need for taking measures to ensure that criminals did not find refuge anywhere.

The British High Commissioner expressed satisfaction over Pakistan’s arrangements to fight the Covid pandemic.

Currently no formal extradition treaty exists between Pakistan and the UK though Section 194 of the UK Extradition Act 2003 contains provisions for special “ad hoc” extradition arrangements.

Contrary to Pakistan that had handed over the suspected killers of a teenager to the British authorities in 2004, the UK has probably never made these special “ad hoc” extradition arrangements to hand over any suspect to the Pakistani authorities. A former British lawmaker, Chaudhry Moham­mad Sarwar, currently holding the office of Punjab governor, had once used his connections in Pakistan to secure extradition to Britain of the killers of 15-year-old Kriss Donald, who was murdered in Glasgow in March 2004.

Published in Dawn, February 3rd, 2021