Tag: extradition

  • Only Allah can bring Nawaz Sharif back: interior minister

    Only Allah can bring Nawaz Sharif back: interior minister

    As the debate surrounding convicted former prime minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif’s extradition to Pakistan from the United Kingdom (UK) intensifies, Federal Minister for Interior Sheikh Rasheed has said that “only Allah can bring Nawaz back to Pakistan”.

    Speaking to journalists in Islamabad, the minister said that the current government could bring neither Nawaz nor former finance minister Ishaq Dar back to Pakistan because there existed no extradition treaty between the two countries.

    “Now, only Allah can bring them back,” he said while speaking of the former chief executive of the country, Nawaz, and his finance minister, Dar.

    Dar had left the country for “medical treatment” in the midst of investigations by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against him, whereas his ex-boss, ailing Nawaz, had left the country after bail on medical grounds while serving a jail term.

    While the government has been trying its best to bring the two back, they have managed to remain in London and appear on talk shows or at anti-government public gatherings via video link.

    Earlier this week, it was reported by a local English daily that British Home Secretary Priti Patel had written to PM Imran Khan’s adviser on accountability, Shahzad Akbar, pointing out that the UK government was subject to international law in the case of Nawaz.

    The home secretary had reportedly confirmed that the British government would give Pakistan’s extradition request full attention under the provision of UK law if a formal request were received. At the same time, Patel had stressed that the UK was subject to international law and could not go against the established legal principles.

    The report had quoted sources as saying that Pakistan had asked for the deportation of Nawaz in a letter sent via British High Commission but a formal extradition request had not been filed. The home secretary’s letter to Pakistan meant that the UK would not consider deporting Nawaz, acting on the deportation request made by Pakistan.

  • ‘Vijay Mallya sent back’: Fawad’s blunder on Nawaz’s extradition called out on air

    ‘Vijay Mallya sent back’: Fawad’s blunder on Nawaz’s extradition called out on air

    A blunder by Federal Minister for Science & Technology Fawad Chaudhry was called out by the host of the show he had appeared on to talk about the extradition of deposed prime minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif, who was last year allowed by the government to travel abroad to seek medical treatment despite his conviction in corruption cases.

    As per the details, Fawad, who was speaking to journalist Shahzad Iqbal during the latter’s show on Geo News, was asked if the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was hopeful that its efforts to get Nawaz extradited would bear fruit.

    “India is a prominent power with influence and you agree. But we have the example of Indian businessman Vijay Mallya who is accused of corruption worth Rs90 billion and has been convicted in the contempt case against him. They [Indian authorities] have time and again been requesting the British authorities to extradite Vijay Mallya but to no avail,” Iqbal said.

    Indian businessman and former lawmaker Mallya is the subject of an extradition effort by New Delhi to bring him back from the UK to face charges of financial crimes in India. Mallya is a former owner of the Royal Challengers Bangalore cricket team. He is also one of the four prominent business magnates of India on the lives of which the 2020 Netflix original documentary web-series “Bad Boy Billionaires” focuses.

    Citing another example, the journalist spoke of former Bangladesh PM Khaleda Zia’s son, Tarique Rahman, who too was allowed to seek treatment abroad despite his conviction in a grenade attack case from 2004 on top of financial crimes accusations, and was never sent back by the UK regardless of Bangladeshi authorities’ requests.

    “You are absolutely right but Vijay Mallya was recently extradited. What you are saying is right and that was why I was against permitting Nawaz to travel abroad,” Fawad said in response to Iqbal who appeared shocked over the minister’s ill-informed claim regarding the Indian businessman’s extradition.

    “I haven’t read anything about Vijay Mallya’s extradition. The case is in the Supreme Court. Who told you this?” the journalist asked.

    Attempting to brush it off, Fawad said he had read “something somewhere” and thought Mallya had been extradited, and told the journalist to take a look, over which Iqbal requested the minister to share the source with him. “I will also read it because as far as I know, Vijay Mallya has not yet been extradited.”

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    The minister’s err moment was followed by both Iqbal and Fawad telling each other to “Google it”.

    Here’s what The Current discovered when we Googled it:

    “The Indian government has been informed that there is a ‘confidential legal matter’ without whose resolution the extradition of embattled liquor baron Vijay Mallya is not possible to India from Britain, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Thursday, adding that India is not a party to that matter. The MEA also said that Mallya’s avenues for appeal against extradition have already been exhausted and that India is in touch with Britain on the issue of his extradition to India,” reads an early October report by the Deccan Chronicle.

    The same has been reported by multiple Indian media organisations, including dailies such as the Hindustan Times and The Hindu.

  • ‘Tightening noose’: Ishaq Dar seeks political asylum in UK?

    ‘Tightening noose’: Ishaq Dar seeks political asylum in UK?

    Soon after Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Accountability Shahzad Akbar said the British government has agreed to extradite Ishaq Dar, it was reported that the former finance minister had approached Home Office in London “to apply for political asylum”.

    Dar, 69, is currently in London, “undergoing medical treatment”. He is absconding from several cases in Pakistan since 2017 and has been declared a proclaimed offender by the courts.

    He is facing charges of accumulating assets beyond known sources of income.

    With the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government continuing to claim Dar is only evading the cases against him since he has been spotted walking upright on the streets of London time and again, PM Imran Khan’s special assistant on Tuesday said the former finance minister “will be brought back soon”.

    A day later, a private media outlet claimed that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader had reached the Home Office in London for a second interview with regard to political asylum in the United Kingdom (UK).

    Rejecting the reports, a close aide of Dar told The Current that he had visited the UK Home Office “only to inform them about the fabricated reports in the name of a recently-signed extradition agreement between the two countries”.

    The source’s claim was validated when British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the United Kingdom (UK) would not sign any extradition treaty that could be used for “politically-motivated” cases.

    Speaking at a joint press conference with Foreign Minister (FM) Shah Mahmood Qureshi at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), Hunt confirmed the two had discussed the issue of an extradition treaty between Pakistan and the UK.

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    “Let me say it straightforward. The UK will never sign any treaty allowing for politically motivated extradition,” said the British official to which Qureshi added that Pakistan did not intend to use the treaty against political rivals.