KARACHI: Pakistan on Thursday asked the United Kingdom to extradite two prominent pro-Imran Khan figures, former accountability aide Shehzad Akbar and YouTuber-commentator Adil Raja, saying they were wanted on charges of anti-state propaganda.
Akbar served as an accountability adviser to Khan, while Raja is a UK-based blogger and former army officer who broadcasts political commentary on Pakistan. Both have been publicly critical of the government and the military in recent years, and officials accuse them of running propaganda campaigns from abroad. Akbar and Raja, who are based in the UK, have separately denied wrongdoing in the past, calling cases against them politically motivated.
On Thursday, Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi met British High Commissioner Jane Marriott in Islamabad and formally handed over Pakistan’s extradition documents, requesting that Raja and Akbar be returned “without delay.”
British authorities have not yet commented publicly on the request.
“Both individuals are required in Pakistan and must be handed over at the earliest,” Naqvi said, according to his ministry’s readout.
He told Marriott Pakistan believed it had submitted sufficient evidence and said “propaganda-spreading Pakistani citizens” could not be given free rein internationally.
He added that Pakistan supported freedom of speech, but argued that “fake news is a problem for every country” and said states cannot allow individuals overseas to “malign the state and its institutions.”
The statement said Islamabad had also initiated the extradition process through the foreign ministry, indicating the request will now move through diplomatic and legal channels.
Pakistan does not currently have a bilateral extradition treaty with Britain, meaning any return would likely require a one-off negotiated arrangement or court approval, a process that may face human-rights scrutiny in London given the political nature of the allegations.
Khan, a former cricket star who served as Pakistan’s prime minister from 2018 to 2022, has been in jail since August 2023 on multiple charges his party says are politically motivated.
Despite incarceration, he remains the country’s most popular opposition figure, commanding one of the largest digital followings in South Asia. Overseas Pakistanis in particular drive sustained online activism on platforms such as YouTube and X, campaigning for his release and alleging human-rights abuses against Khan and his supporters, claims the Pakistani state rejects.
