LAHORE, March 18: The Lahore High Court dismissed on Monday a habeas corpus petition filed in 1996 for recovery of a convicted smuggler surrendered to the United States.

Mst Perveen Akhtar complained that her husband, Khwaja Abdul Majid, was convicted and sentenced in the USA in 1982. He was released on parole and allowed to return to Pakistan in 1987. In 1995, Pakistan’s anti-narcotics authorities received a warrant issued by a US court saying that Majid be rearrested for indulging in trafficking on his return home.

The petitioner said her husband was made over to the US authorities without probing veracity of the allegation. No judicial proceedings were held before extraditing him.

The interior ministry submitted in its comments that no extradition proceedings were warranted. Majid was not an accused but a convict. The trial court only recalled its parole order. Pakistan has an agreement with the United States for return and repatriation of convicts and fugitives.

Justice Rustam Ali Malik, who was finally assigned the petition, dismissed it as not maintainable.