ISLAMABAD: Prime minister’s special assistant on accountability Mirza Shahzad Akbar announced on Monday that his country had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the United Kingdom to extradite wanted individuals to Pakistan, adding the development would also make it possible for his government to bring back the country’s former finance minister Ishaq Dar who currently resides in England.
Faced with serious corruption charges, Dar left Pakistan in October 2017 to attend a regional economic conference but did not return to his country. In a letter sent to an accountability court, he said that he was suffering from diffuse coronary heart disease and needed medical treatment abroad.
In December 2017, the court declared him an absconder and in October 2018 it ordered the government to auction Dar’s movable and immovable properties.
On Monday, Shahzad Akbar announced in a tweet that he had had productive meetings with UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid and Minister of State for Asia and the Pacific at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Mark Field.
“UK signs first ever MoU for extradition to Pakistan, setting legal basis for extradition of Ishaq Dar in absence of a treaty,” he said in a twitter post.
Pakistan and United Kingdom sign first-ever MoU for extradition
Pakistan and United Kingdom sign first-ever MoU for extradition
- The development may help the government bring Ishaq Dar back to Pakistan
- Prime minister’s adviser on accountability says his meeting with British home secretary was fruitful
Blast kills six policemen in northwest Pakistan amid Afghanistan operation
- The explosion targeted a police vehicle in Lakki Marwat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province
- It comes after Pakistan’s overnight ‘precision strikes’ against militant hideouts in Afghanistan
ISLAMABAD: At least six policemen were killed in an explosion in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the interior ministry said on Friday, amid Pakistan’s continuing strikes against alleged militant hideouts in Afghanistan.
The explosion took place in the Lakki Marwat district near a police vehicle following an attempted drone strike by Afghan Taliban forces in Kohat, according to Pakistani officials.
Pakistan has struggled to contain a surge in militant attacks in KP, which borders Afghanistan, by the Pakistani Taliban, who have mounted assaults since the Afghan Taliban’s return to power in 2021.
“The brave soldiers of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police sacrificed their lives today for the nation’s peaceful tomorrow,” Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said, lauding police personnel in the restive region.
In a statement issued from his office, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack in Lakki Marwat and extended his prayers and best wishes for the deceased and injured personnel.
“We will never let sacrifices of police personnel and security forces go in vain,” he said. We are determined to completely eradicate terrorism from the country.”
The bomb attack came a day after two suspected militants were killed and four others were arrested during a joint operation conducted by police, counter-terrorism department and pro-government militias in the same district, police said.
Islamabad accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of failing to rein in militant groups that it says use Afghan soil to plan and launch attacks in Pakistan, a charge Kabul denies.
Last month, Pakistan conducted air strikes against what it said were Pakistani Taliban and Daesh targets in Afghanistan, provoking the Afghan side to retaliate across their shared border. The two neighbors have since been locked in a conflict.
