By DPA
Islamabad : Pakistan and Britain Friday signed a prisoner exchange agreement that precedes the adoption of a full extradition treaty, officials said.
“Under the accord, 428 Pakistani nationals, including 25 women, in British jails will be eligible to request a transfer to their own country,” Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao told reporters after the signing ceremony in Islamabad.
Seven British citizens in Pakistani prisons would benefit from the treaty, which does not apply to those on death row, British High Commissioner Robert Brinkley said at the ceremony.
Transfers would only take place with the consent of prisoners, Pakistani officials added.
For more than two years, the countries have also been negotiating an extradition treaty enabling them to exchange terrorist suspects and other serious offenders.
The talks 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 reportedly travelled to Pakistan in the months before the attacks, which killed 52 people and injured about 700.
Some technical problems still had to be resolved before the draft treaty could be finalised, Brinkley said.
Meanwhile, Pakistan and Britain were discussing a possible one-off extradition of British citizen Rashid Rauf, the alleged mastermind of the London airliner plot that was thwarted by British intelligence in August 2006.
Rauf is also wanted in Britain in connection with the unsolved murder of his uncle more than four years ago, after which he flew to Pakistan.
Sharpao said Islamabad was still considering the request for his extradition.