ISLAMABAD – Pakistan to finalize crucial extradition treaties with keyglobal powers including the United Kingdom (UK), China and other importantstates situated in the Gulf, Middle East and adjoining belt.
The move is likely to come into effect quickly as the Interior minister hasdirected the relevant authorities to come up with a concrete roadmap inthis regard.
The Pakistani nationals will complete their remaining prison terms inPakistan who are presently lodged in prisons of different countries underdifferent charges as a result of extradition treaties, said interiorministry spokesman on Tuesday.
There are thousands of Pakistanis suffering in jails of US, UK, China andother Arab and European countries on account of the various crimes. Most ofthem are serving sentences for charges of drug smuggling and are undertrial in many cases.
Pakistan has signed the extradition treaty with few countries such asThailand and does not have such treaties with a large number of thecountries. This phenomenon has been leading the country to a number ofissues when it comes to extradition of Pakistani nationals who are wantedby law but are residing abroad in the countries with which Pakistan doesnot have a bilateral agreement of exchange of offenders.
The move of the interior minister will bring a lot of positive changes onthe international image of Pakistan, according to sources in the FederalInvestigation Agency (FIA). This was a long awaited demand of all lawenforcement agencies including the FIA that Pakistan should sign theextradition treaties with all the countries of the world for smoothexchange of criminals who are wanted by law, stated the sources.
The sources said that the Pakistanis would have lesser issues while gettingvisas of the countries when the treaties are signed with them. “Whileawarding visas to Pakistanis, these countries would be satisfied enough onthe grounds that when Pakistanis are found involved in petty issues, theywould be easily extradited to Pakistan.”
The signing of extradition treaty of UK will have a great impact on thecases related with the founder of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) AltafHussain who is a UK national.
Last year, the FIA had filed a case against Altaf Hussain on charges ofterror financing and money laundering. The case was filed on the complaintof businessman Sarfaraz Anwar Merchant in which he alleged that the fundsreceived by the non-profit organisation Khidmat-e-Khalq Foundation (KKF)were transferred to the accounts of different MQM members and businessorganisations.