ISLAMABAD, 6 August 2005 — Pakistan and Britain have signed an extradition treaty to facilitate the exchange of persons wanted in acts of terror and other crimes, diplomatic sources said.
The two countries have been working on the wordings of the treaty for months but they speeded up this process in the aftermath of the 7/7 terrorist attacks in London, government sources said.
It was soon after the London blasts that the two sides agreed to give final touches to the extradition treaty, they said, adding that Britain wanted suspects with links to the London bombs handed over to the British authorities.
The recent unannounced visit of Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri to London played a key role in the finalization of the extradition treaty, a source said, adding that in the next few days the Cabinets of the two countries would ratify it.
Formal announcement of the treaty, according to the sources, is likely to be made in a few days by the two sides simultaneously after which both parties would have a legal cover to extradite the persons required by each other.
They said that until now the British authorities had not made any specific request for the extradition of any Pakistani national in connection with the London bomb blasts. However, in the past such demands could not be accepted due to absence of relevant legal instrument.
A source cited the case of the abduction and murder of British national Kriss Donald. The British government last year wanted Pakistan to extradite Imran Shahid, Zeeshan Shahid and Muhammad Faisal, all three of Pakistani origin and suspects in the case. However, the request was turned down as no formal extradition treaty existed between the two countries.
