The Ministry of Interior (MoI) is reported to have made a man spend two-and-a-half-years in two Pakistani jails against a six-month sentence handed down by a UAE court in absentia in a cheque fraud case, documents available with The Nation reveal.
What looks like a sheer incompetence on the ministry’s part, the life of the convict, Khalid Jamal Khan, has turned upside down. Jamal has served more jail term than the actual sentence imposed by the UAE court. His mother died a few months back waiting for her son’s release.
Interestingly, the ministry had rejected UAE authorities’ request for his extradition owing to a considerable delay on their part in submitting the extradition request, and by that time, he had spent his jail term and he was released on a court order. Later, he was arrested again and put in jail and this would be Jamal’s 6th Eid in prison with no hope of release in sight.
The ministry is still caught up in legal technicalities and seems indecisive on the issue, according to the sources at the MoI.
According to the documents, the City Police Mardan had arrested Jamal, son of Rozi Khan, a resident of Mardan on March 19, 2014, in connection with the sentence imposed by the UAE court in absentia and put him in judicial lockup. However, he was released on the order of the Peshawar High Court after the convict’s brother filed a petition against his detention.
He was arrested again on November 10, 2015, on the orders of ADC(G) Islamabad and he is still in a judicial lock-up in Adiala jail in Rawalpindi. According to article 9 of a treaty between Pakistan and the UAE, “If the request for extradition is granted, the detention period shall continue until the person sought is handed over to the authorities of the requesting party. The detention period shall be remitted from the sentence passed against him.” The convict should have been released after he served seven months in Mardan jail which was more than the imprisonment imposed by the UAE court. The Pakistani authorities had rejected the UAE government’s request for Jamal’s extradition.
According to the background of the case, a UAE national, Jawda Amer, an agent of the Mashraq Bank, had filed a complaint against Jamal for making out a cheque without sufficient funds in his account, which is a criminal act under article 401/1 of the UAE Federal Law. The Abu Dhabi First Insurance Court-Misdemeanour Courtroom, on September 15, 2009, sentenced Jamal, in absentia, to six months in prison. At that time, Jamal had returned to Pakistan. The Interpol Abu Dhabi on April 17, 2013, requested Pakistan for his arrest. Subsequently, Interpol Pakistan approached DPO Mardan to locate Jamal. Mardan police arrested him on March 19, 2014, and put him in the judicial lock-up at district jail Mardan under the orders of the court of the area magistrate. Interpol Pakistan, on July 4, 2014, informed Interpol Abu Dhabi about Jamal’s arrest and asked if he was still wanted by the UAE authorities. In the meantime, Jamal’s brother filed a writ petition in the Peshawar High Court for the release of his brother. The PHC on November 6, 2014, ordered his release.
The documents reveal that the UAE authorities forwarded the extradition request on December 24, 2014, based on the provisions of the article of the extradition treaty between Pakistan and UAE of March 8, 2004.
The ADC (G) Islamabad conducted a magisterial inquiry and sent a non-bailable warrant on March 4, 2015, requesting the DG FIA for early arrest of Jamal. He also recommended that the offender should be extradited to the UAE. Jamal was arrested again on November 10, 2015, on the orders of ADC (G) Islamabad but was neither extradited nor released. He is languishing in a judicial lock up in Adiala jail in Rawalpindi since then.
Meanwhile, the MoI also sent Jamal’s case to the Law and Justice Division for a legal opinion which observed that Jamal was arrested on March 19, 2014, and released on November 6, 2014, through the intervention of the PHC while the extradition request dated December 24, 2014 was received by the ministry of interior on January 9, 2015. It held that “Jamal Khan thus remained in a judicial lock up (deprived of his liberty) for more than seven months. The grossly inordinate delay on the part of the UAE authorities in submitting the extradition request and consequential prolonged deprivation of liberty cannot be justified”.
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