The Pakistani government is gearing up to bring the Former Finance Minister Ishaq Dar back in the country from the UK in order to continue the pending corruption case against him. He left over a year ago and moved to the UK to avoid the court.
Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Accountability Shahzad Akbar affirmed that experts in the UK, where Dar has been living for more than one year, have looked for extra proof against the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) pioneer. He added that “We signed MoU with the UK authorities regarding the extradition of Ishaq Dar on May 24. After receiving additional evidence, they will present Pakistan’s request for Dar’s extradition before a magistrate. So far three Pakistani individuals had been extradited from the UK,”
Senior officials of the government hold the opinion that the process may take a while as there is already some internal political chaos in the UK. Fortunately, the case itself is very strong as it was initiated by the Supreme Court of Pakistan and has no political background. Dar is of the opinion that the case is politically motivated and the burden of proof is on him to justify the claim.
Ishaq Dar was nominated in a case of assets beyond means. PM-N leaders often prefer to stay in the UK when they are not in the government and especially when there are pending cases against them in Pakistan. Recently, the opposition leader of the National Assembly and President of Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) Shehbaz Sharif landed in Pakistan after his seven weeks stay in London. The visit was originally planned for 10 to 12 days on medical grounds which extended up to two months. Despite the claims of his awful health conditions by the party representatives, multiple videos of him went viral on social media in which he was wandering on the streets of London and he hosted political meetings as well.