Nawaz Sharif’s repatriation plea: Interior ministry’s letter to Britain, before completion of legal process, premature

ISLAMABAD: The interior ministry’s latest letter to Britain, seeking deportation of ailing deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, is premature because legal formalities have not been completed before dispatching it.

In the opinion of noted legal experts, as the developments are taking, it appears that the matter will be finally adjudicated by a high court.

“Before exercising the present option, the government has to go to the relevant court to get Nawaz Sharif declared absconder and only then, it can approach the British authorities requesting his return,” former Supreme Court Bar Association President Kamran Murtaza explained to The News when contacted.

On the strength of such a court order, he said the government can ask London to send the former prime minister back. “There has to be a legal basis to make such request.”

Kamran Murtaza said that by invoking Section 301 of the Criminal Procedure Code (Cr.P.C) the Punjab government had extended the bail granted to Nawaz Sharif by the high court for a specific period. “After the withdrawal of this facility, the government has to follow the legal options to get him back.”

The high court order said that Nawaz Sharif can approach the court if the government exercises its authority in an arbitrary and whimsical manner.

The lawyer said that the aggrieved party has the remedy to challenge the extraction of the facility by the Punjab government in the high court in the form of a writ petition pleading that the action was capricious and biased. “Thus, the issue will be ultimately resolved by a court of law.”

Kamran Murtaza said that the grounds now mentioned in the letter written by the interior ministry calling for deportation of Nawaz Sharif may be relied only after the legal process in Pakistan is completed.

The letter said that since Nawaz Sharif is a convict and his bail period stands exhausted, he should be expelled. It also said he should be sent back so that he serves his unfinished sentence in jail.

Another legal expert said that it was not certain that the British authorities would accept the request of the federal government made even after legal formalities because there was a recent precedent when they had turned down such a plea.

He said that the government tried hard to get former Finance Minister Ishaq Dar deported after he had been declared an absconder by an accountability court, his assets had been frozen and his passport cancelled, but still Britain dismissed the request.

In September 2018 the expert recalled, the British government declined Pakistan's appeal to deport Dar, citing the reason that Britain has no formal extradition treaty with Pakistan.

It said Section 194 of the Extradition Act 2003 does allow special extradition arrangements in exceptional circumstances, adding that under current law, an extradition process is initiated at the request of the government of the country in which the individual has been convicted of the crime. It would, therefore, be the Pakistan government’s responsibility to initiate such proceedings.

Section 401 of Cr.P.C. deals with the power to suspend or remit sentences. It says when any person has been sentenced to punishment for an offence, the provincial government may at any time with or without conditions which the person sentenced accepts, suspend the execution of his sentence or remit the whole or any part of it. Whenever an application is made to the provincial government for the suspension or remission of a sentence, it may require the presiding judge of the court before or by which the conviction was or had confirmed to state his opinion as whether the application should be granted or refused, together with his reason for such opinion.

If any condition on which a sentence has been suspended or remitted is, in the opinion of the provincial government, not fulfilled it may cancel the suspension or remission, and such person may, if at large, be arrested by without warrant and remanded to undergo the unexpired portion of the sentence.

The condition on which a sentence is suspended or remitted under Section 401 may be one to be fulfilled by the person in whose favour the sentence is suspended or remitted, or on independent of his will. These provisions will also apply to any order passed by a criminal court under any section of the Cr.P.C. or of any other law, which restricts the liberty of any person or imposes any liability upon him or his property.

Nothing shall be deemed to interfere with the right of the president or of the central government when such right is delegated to it to grant pardons, reprieves, respites or remissions of punishment.

Where a conditional pardon is granted by the president or, in virtue of any powers delegated to it, by the central government, any condition thereby imposed, of whatever nature will be deemed to have been imposed by a sentence of a competent court under the Cr.P.C. and will be enforceable accordingly.

The provincial government may, by general rules or special orders, give directions as to the suspension of sentences and the conditions on which petition should be presented and dealt with.