ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and the United Kingdom have decided to finalize and sign an agreement for the repatriation of convicted citizens and criminals at the earliest, reported the state-owned Radio Pakistan on Tuesday.

The understanding was reached between the two sides during a meeting between Pakistan’s interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed and British high commissioner Christian Turner in Islamabad.

The two countries have been negotiating a criminal extradition treaty for the last several years.

The Pakistani authorities have frequently pledged to bring back the country’s former prime minister Nawaz Sharif from Britain who was found guilty in a corruption reference by an accountability court and sentenced to prison for 10 years in December 2018.

Sharif began his prison term in Pakistan but was temporarily released on medical bail and flew out to London in November 2019.

Since then, he has not returned to his country.

“It was realized that the agreement is in the interest of both the countries and there is a need to accelerate progress on it,” the Radio Pakistan said. “The two sides were also of the view that bilateral agreements will further strengthen cooperation between the two countries.”

The Pakistani interior minister said his country attributed immense importance to its ties with the UK.

The British high commissioner also acknowledged the “friendly and multi-faceted relationship” between the two countries while appreciating Pakistan’s assistance with the evacuation of foreign nationals from Afghanistan after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in August 2021.