By DPA
Islamabad : Pakistan and Britain Friday signed a long-discussed extradition treaty enabling the countries to exchange convicted prisoners, including those sentenced to death on terrorism charges, officials said.
“This agreement is historic and it will enhance bilateral cooperation in the war against terrorism,” Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao told reporters after the signing ceremony, which was also attended by the British High Commissioner Robert Brinkley.
Under the treaty, Pakistani and British prisoners can serve their sentences in their own countries.
There are a total of 428 Pakistani nationals in British jails, according to Sherpao’s ministry. Pakistan is holding only seven British prisoners, including Rashid Rauf, the alleged mastermind in the London jet plot thwarted by British intelligence in August 2006.
The agreement would make Rauf’s extradition possible after he is sentenced in Pakistan. He is wanted in Britain over the unsolved murder of his uncle there more than four years ago, after which he flew to Pakistan.
The draft of the treaty was finalised after more than two years of consultations. These were intensified after the July 7, 2005 bombings in London raised concerns about possible links between Islamic militants in the two countries.
Three of the suicide bombers, Mohammad Sidique Khan, Shehzad Tanweer and Hasib Hussain, reportedly travelled to Pakistan in the months before the attacks, which killed 52 people and injured 700.
This is the first extradition treaty between the two countries.