Pakistan asks UK to arrest accused in Dr Imran murder case

 Britain also seeks handover of Dr Imran Farooq murder suspects

LONDON: Reports suggest that Pakistan has contacted the United Kingdom to arrest and hand over Altaf Hussain, Muhammad Anwar and Iftikhar Hussain Quraishi to Islamabad in former Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Dr Imran Farooq's murder case.

On the other hand, Britain has also formally asked Pakistan to extradite to the UK the alleged killers of Dr Imran Farooq. Mohsin Ali Syed and Muhammad Kashif Khan Kamran – with other characters Khalid Shamim and Moazzam Ali Khan and a few yet unnamed men from both Pakistan and the UK – killed Dr Farooq here in Edgware about five years ago and then fled to Pakistan a few hours after the murder.

Geo News had exclusively reported that Dr Imran Farooq’s widow Shumaila Imran Farooq and her two sons had been taken before a magistrate’s court by the Scotland Yard just before Christmas where a closed-door hearing took place.

That hearing was about establishing before the judge that an “extraditable offence” took place in relation to Dr Imran Farooq's killing and there were “reasonable ground” to seek extradition of the suspects so that they could be charged and prosecuted in the UK.

Shumaila Imran Farooq had submitted her “sworn testimony” before the judge about her statement to the police which related to her own evidence about the murder of her husband. This correspondent has learnt that the extradition request has been made to Pakistan’s Ministry of Interior through the Home Office which liaises with the Pakistani authorities in all such matters.

Extradition is the formal process where one country asks another to return a person in order to stand trial or to serve a sentence and under multilateral conventions and bilateral extradition treaties, the UK has extradition relations with over 100 territories around the world but Pakistan is not on the list of such countries.

When contacted, a Home Office spokesman said that “as a matter of long-standing policy and practice, the UK will neither confirm nor deny that an extradition request has been made or received until such time as an arrest has been made in relation to that request”.

But when pressed further, the spokesman said that the absence of an extradition treaty between the two countries shall not prevent the handover of the murder suspects and added that there were numerous cases in which the two countries cooperated with each other and handed over suspects under the mutual legal assistance formula. He added: “The absence of a formal extradition treaty does not prevent the UK from requesting the extradition of an individual from another country. It is a matter for the law of that country whether it is able to respond to such a request.”

When contacted, a police spokesman confirmed that investigators at the Scotland Yard remain in “regular contact” with the Pakistani authorities in relation to Dr Imran Farooq's case. A credible police source said that the Scotland Yard had completed its investigation in all aspects and now the “matter was between the governments of Pakistan and the UK to resolve the case”.

He said: “Our investigations will remain active but for us to proceed further we need to arrest and charge the suspects in this country to make any meaningful progress.” The police source said that the two countries have shared important information with each other.

He said that Mohsin Ali Syed and Muhammad Kashif Khan Kamran remained “wanted men” to the UK authorities. According to the law, even if the UK has no extradition arrangement or treaty with a particular territory, it may still be possible or for that territory to make an extradition request to the UK. Incoming requests are made to the International Criminality Unit at the Home Office. The Secretary of State then decides whether to enter into ‘special extradition arrangements’.

Outgoing extradition requests to countries such as Pakistan fall outside the scope of the 2003 act and are made under the royal prerogative. The ICU at the Home Office forwards extradition requests that have been prepared by the prosecuting authorities in England and Wales and Northern Ireland (e.g. CPS, Serious Fraud Office or Public Prosecution Service Northern Ireland) to the requested state through the diplomatic route.