On Tuesday, February 28, a two-day international conference on mutual legal assistance (MLA) and extradition between the UK and Pakistan concluded. The first of its kind conference was jointly organized by the British High Commission, Islamabad and the Ministry of Interior, Government of Pakistan in collaboration with CODE Pakistan. The conference focused on four thematic areas, best practices in Extradition, best practices in Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA), Successful Application Drafting and the Direct and Digital Communication. Federal and provincial level practitioners of the Mutual Legal Assistance MLA and extradition systems in both UK and Pakistan exchanged best practices. The conference also facilitated in the development of institutional relationships between the key stakeholder agencies of the UK and Pakistan, which in turn will decrease public spending in both countries and speed up the investigation of criminal cases. There are an estimated 106,101 British Nationals and Dual Nationals in Pakistan and a Pakistani diaspora of approximately 1.9 million in the UK. Overall, it is estimated that there are around 500,000 British visitors to Pakistan each year. Trade between Pakistan and the UK amounts to £3.5bn annually. As people and trade links grow, so does the risk of being exposed to the threat of transnational criminality, necessitating greater collaboration among criminal justice actors. Acting British High Commissioner, Andrew Dalgleish inaugurated the conference and welcomed the opportunity to discuss the areas of cooperation between the two countries. Day 2 of the conference commenced with opening remarks from the Federal Minister of Law who highlighted the relevance of the subject-matter of the conference and appreciated the speakers and the participants for their active engagement in the two-day activity. He ended his speech by stressing on the need for updating Pakistan’s legislative framework in the context of extradition to reflect the needs and challenges of the present time. Note to Editors: a) Mutual legal assistance (MLA) is a method of cooperation between states for obtaining assistance in the investigation or prosecution of criminal offences. MLA is generally used for obtaining material that cannot be obtained on a police cooperation basis, particularly enquiries that require coercive means. b) Extradition is the formal process where one country asks another to return a person in order to stand trial or to serve a sentence. Under multilateral conventions and bilateral extradition treaties the UK has extradition relations with over 100 territories around the world. Even if the UK has no extradition arrangement or treaty with a particular territory, it may still be possible or for that territory to make an extradition request to the UK. Incoming requests are made to the UKCA. The Secretary of State then decides whether to enter into ‘special extradition arrangements.’ c) From Pakistan, the Ministry of Interior (MOI), the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF), the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA), Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), the Additional Deputy Commissioner (General), the Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU), provincial Home Departments, and representatives of the provincial police forces participated. The UK side delegation comprised officers from the UK Home Office, the Crown Prosecution Service, the Serious Fraud Office, and the Westminster Magistrates Court. The conference came to a close on Day 2 with remarks by the Secretary, Ministry of Interior, who thanked the British High Commission and CODE Pakistan for bringing together practitioners in Extradition and Mutual Legal Assistance from the UK as well as Pakistan. The Secretary noted the conference “is a timely and important initiative”, the recommendations of which “will be considered both at the operational and policy level”.
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