Efforts on to sign extradition treaty with 35 countries, National Assembly told

Pakistan is willing to sign extradition treaty with every country, as efforts are underway to enter into such agreements with 35 countries including United States for exchange of offenders, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar told National Assembly here on Thursday during Question Hour.
Currently, she said, Pakistan has agreement for exchanging accused with only three countries, while the process is underway to sign the treaty with 35 other countries. The countries with whom agreements are under process include United Arab Emirates, United States of America, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Cyprus, Egypt, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Iran, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Uzbekistan, Netherlands, Philippine, Romania, Russia, Uzbekistan, Yemen and South Korea.
Earlier, the minister in a written reply said that five Pakistani students were currently imprisoned in US, UK and Canada on different charges. She said that Ahmed Adnan Chaudhry was arrested on charges of attempted murder in US on December 12, 2000, Adnan Mirza was arrested and tried for possessing gun and hatching conspiracy against the US government and was sentenced for 15 years.
Abid Naseer was arrested on April 8, 2009 on charges of plotting terror attack during Easter in UK and a court declared him as an al Qaeda operative and a national security threat. Khar said that Pakistan High Commission's officials consistently tried to meet Abid but, but he declined to meet officers of the High Commission.
She further told the House that Aqeel-ur-Rehman Abbasi was arrested in 2008 for involvement in terrorist acts in Spain and had been awarded six years imprisonment. While Salman Dar was arrested in 2004 in Ireland on the charges of rape and was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment.
To a query, she said that only Foreign Office had the final and ultimate Call Maker to announce immunity to any diplomat, adding that if the Foreign Office declares immunity to any diplomat, he/she cannot be tried in any court. However, she admitted that there was involvement of different agencies in issuing visas and now the government was trying to further streamline the visa and record keeping process.
Khar, in a written reply, further told the House that Pakistan Embassy and Consulates in US issued 1,95,793 visas during the last five years. She said theses visas were issued under various heads including dual nationality, official and diplomats, family visit, tourism and business.
While elaborating, she said that Pakistan Embassy at Washington issued 68,088 visas, while 36,158 visas were issued by consulate general at Los Angeles, 71,079 at New York and 20,468 visas were issued by consulate general at Chicago during the last five years.
To another query she said that Pakistani mission abroad issued as many as 57,724 visas to foreigners of the third world countries since April 2008 to December 2010.
Giving details, she further said that a total of 14,842 visas were issued to UK nationals, 7,923 to Saudi Arabia, 6, 022 to Afghanistan, 4,283 to Kuwait, 3,507 to India, 3,045 to US, 2,367 to Qatar, 2,265 to Switzerland, 1,982 to Germany, 1,855 to Denmark, 1268 to Bahrain, 883 to Oman, 745 to Italy, 730 to France, 725 to Belgium, 580 to UAE, 578 to Ireland,472 to Turkey, 467 to Iran, 347 to Spain, 336 to Egypt, 216 to South Africa, 205 to Sudan, 202 to Lebanon, 191 to Yemen, 173 to Syria, 143 to Jordan, 128 to Russia, 123 to Greece, 109 to Zimbabwe, 101 to Canada, 95 to Mexico, 87 to Czech Republic, 72 to Romania, 66 to Tunis, 66 to Libya, 64 to Hungry, 60 to Portugal, 54 to Morocco, 44 to Kenya, 38 to Ukraine, 34 to Senegal, 31 to Chile, 30 to Tanzania, 30 to Poland, 29 to Belgrade, 27 to Argentina, 26 to Brazil, 21 to Bosnia, 20 to Azerbaijan, 12 to Algeria and 5 to Bulgaria.
Khar said that the visas were issued to those foreigners who hold valid residence permit. Visas to other categories have been issued on clearance from Ministry of Interior. She said that flexibility was exercised by the missions only in the case of foreigners of Pakistan origin.
To a question, she told the House that around 5,000 Pakistanis were brought back from Libya and funds were extremely insufficient to carry out the operation, adding that staff at Pakistani Embassy in Libya were reduced and only 'Skeleton Staff' are performing their duties to facilitate the remaining Pakistanis in the riot-hit country.