Extradition with Britain cannot be one-sided: interior minister

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said on Wednesday that if Pakistan cooperates with Britain to extradite a wanted criminal, it will not be one-sided.

“If such a situation arises that requires additional cooperation from us, and I have made it clear to the British High Commissioner, that it will be a precedent for future cooperation from their side,” said Nisar as he told reporters in Islamabad about the recent progress in the Imran Farooq murder case and his meeting with British High Commissioner Philip Barton.

Pakistan does not have an extradition agreement with Britain, he said.

“It cannot be one-sided cooperation. If we hand over a wanted man to them but they do not extradite our wanted man; this will not be acceptable,” he said.

He added that there has so far been no request for extradition of any suspect from either side.






Nisar said that there had been proactive involvement of Pakistani agencies otherwise the Imran Farooq Murder case was a ‘blind case’.

“The major crackdown in the Imran Farooq murder case has been done by the Pakistani police and security agencies. They showed the way to Scotland Yard,” he said.

He vowed that security agencies would reach the conclusion of the murder case.

The interior minister also dismissed rumours that his meeting with British High Commissioner Philip Barton had any link to Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain’s interrogation by Scotland Yard police.

“I discussed this (Imran Farooq) and money-laundering case with the British High Commissioner. This was a routine meeting. I told him that there was no extradition treaty with Britain,” he said.

We are not treating this as a political issue but a criminal murder case, he said.

The interior minister said that any cooperation in the Imran Farooq murder investigation was being done under international agreements.

“We are bound by international agreements to cooperate with Britain. Our cooperation is according to these agreements,” he added.

Nisar said that suspect Muazzam Ali, who was arrested from Karachi’s Azizabad area on Sunday, was a central character in the case.

Two men carried out the murder, according to British agencies, and Muazzam had a central role in sending the two men to Britain and arranging for their logistics, he said.

He said that the suspect had gone into hiding soon after the BBC aired a documentary related to the case.

We monitored and tracked him down through telephone, he said.

“As soon as there is further progress in the investigation, we will convey it to you,” he told reporters.

Nisar said that he would brief the media again in a week on further progress in the murder case.