ISLAMABAD, Sept 10: Pakistan and the United Kingdom have agreed to form a joint working group for counter-terrorism and control of trans-national crimes. An interior ministry official said on Sunday that British officials had invited interior ministry officials to sign an agreement in London.

UK’s Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Dr Kim Howells, who held a meeting with Secretary Interior Syed Kamal Shah in the ministry and discussed various aspects of the working group’s formation.

Additional Secretary Interior Chaudhry Qamar Zaman, also the ministry’s spokesman, said the UK Home Secretary John Reid had sent a letter to the interior ministry about forming the group. “Mr Howells is a continuation of the letter to reiterate the plan to form the JWG,” he said.

He said the secretary interior would visit the UK soon to sign the document.

When asked if the formation of the joint working group would allow extradition of wanted people between the two countries, the official said: “No. It has got nothing to do with the extradition treaty.” He said that both sides were also working on signing an extradition treaty but it needed a lot of work.

US JWG: Pakistan and United States will start their Joint Working Group (JWG) meeting on migration development in New York on Sept 12, an interior ministry official said.

He said the Pakistani team, headed by Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Sherpao, would leave for New York on Monday.