IHC orders ministry to get murder suspect extradited from UAE

Ministry has been given four weeks to produce the suspect

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) ordered the Interior Ministry on Friday to arrange for the extradition of a murder suspect from the UAE. The Pakistani national is presently detained by authorities in that country.

The court has given the ministry four weeks to extradite Muhammad Ahmed Sardar and produce him before the IHC.

The order follows the issuance of a Red Notice against him for his alleged involvement in a blind murder case in Bahawalpur District.



Justice Aamer Farooq ordered the ministry to make arrangements for the execution of the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) notice.

Additionally, the order states that the concerned ministry should produce Sardar before the IHC to face the murder trial.

The directions come in response to a petition filed by Sardar’s mother, Khursheed Begum, who sought the IHC’s intervention in bringing her son back to the country.

The respondents, Ministry of Interior and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), were represented by the Deputy Attorney General Malik Feisel Rafique.

On August 6, Begum’s counsel Ammar Sehri said that UAE authorities detained Sardar at the airport owing to the red notice, which stated that he was wanted by the judicial authorities of Pakistan for prosecution in the murder of Muhammad Shahab.

Shahab’s body was found from the AP Branch Canal in Bahawalpur on October 16, 2011.

Initially, the counsel said that Shahab’s father had lodged an FIR against unidentified persons.



Later, he had implicated Sardar, his wife Mehwish alias Mishi and others relatives alleging the suspects shot and killed his son before dumped his body in the canal.

The complainant had maintained that Sardar was in the country when his son was murdered but his body was found after the suspect had fled the country.

He said that the motive behind the crime was criminal litigation between the two families.

In February 2012, a district court in Bahawalpur issued warrants for Sardar’s arrest and declared him a proclaimed offender.

Subsequently, the FIA, on the request of Bahawalpur DPO and approval from the Interior Ministry, requested Interpol to issue a Red Notice against the suspect on June 15, 2016.

Sehri prayed the court to allow the accused to surrender before the court of competent jurisdiction by asking the FIA to withdraw the red warrants.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 17^th, 2016.