News Desk |
Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Accountability Shahzad Akbar has revealed that United Kingdom has sought more evidence regarding extradition of the former finance minister Ishaq Dar, adding that Pakistan has already answered 22 questions earlier raised by UK authorities.
Reportedly, UK has asked for additional evidence from Pakistan in connection with the request to extradite the ex-finance minister, who was declared a proclaimed offender by an accountability court in a corruption reference of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
The process to repatriate Dar is underway and he will be here after completion of the process,” Akbar on June 17.
NAB had filed the reference against Dar on the orders of the Supreme Court in the cases related to Panama papers scandal. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Ishaq Dar has been living in UK for over one year now.
PM’s special assistant has said that the required information will be shared with the authorities in UK in the first week of July, adding that authorities in Pakistan have gathered more evidence against Dar. “Earlier, Pakistan had already responded 22 questions raised by the UK,” he said.
Read more: Ishaq Dar’s wife cannot prove her story: NAB
Will UK extradite Dar?
Recently, it emerged that British and Pakistan authorities’ had different stance over a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for repatriation of Dar – who fled to UK without the court’s permission while facing assets beyond means case.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Ishaq Dar has been living in UK for over one year now.
Pakistan government has claimed that it has signed an MoU with UK for repatriation of Dar. “As part of the MoU, the British authorities will arrest Ishaq Dar and present him before an English magistrate. The process to repatriate Dar is underway and he will be here after completion of the process,” Akbar on June 17.
However, British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt later clarified that “no extradition treaty signed by the UK would ever allow for politically motivated extradition”. The foreign secretary’s statement had come during a joint press conference held with Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in London on June 19.
Read more: Ishaq Dar hid financial matters from PML-N leadership
UK will never allow politically motivated extradition: British Foreign Secretary
In response to a question, Hunt said: “Let me say it straightforward. No extradition treaty the UK will ever sign allowing for the politically motivated extradition.” Qureshi, in response to Hunt’s statement to the media, had said: “Pakistan does not want to use extradition for political victimization, that’s not the idea.”
NAB had filed the reference against Dar on the orders of the Supreme Court in the cases related to Panama papers scandal.
Pakistani media had quoted Qureshi saying “we feel that extradition is important. And we have also discussed in my meeting with the [British] home secretary that the impediment […] was the issue of capital punishment and we have resolved that by taking a decision that we are going to make amendments in the Pakistan Penal Code to address this issue,” Qureshi had said. He had contended that the extradition treaty would not be misused.
The statements by the two dignitaries come in the backdrop of reports that an agreement was reached between Pakistani and British authorities for the extradition of Dar to Pakistan.
Read more: Will UK extradite Ishaq Dar?
Dar visits UK Home Office to talk ‘media trial’
Meanwhile, Dar on June 19 visited the UK Home Office and informed the officials about how the Pakistani government was running a “media trial” in the name of a recently-signed MoU between the two nations.
Dar’s son Ali Dar told the media that his father has informed officials of the UK Home Office that the “Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government was maligning him [Dar] via media and doing so using the British government.”
After arriving in UK, this was Dar’s second visit to the Home Office. Ali Dar had said that his father had “decided to take up with the UK Home Office the matter of the on-going media trial against him by Pakistani Authorities in relation to the purported MOU signed for his extradition”.
Previously, Ali Dar had said, his father had visited the Home Office to inform them of the development pertaining to the cancellation of his passport on the orders of the former chief justice of Pakistan in September 2018, which practically left him “stateless”.