Pak govt questioned over clandestine extradition

It could have been something out of a racy thriller. Ajmal Kansi, a prime suspect in a 1993 shooting and killing case in the United States was spirited out of Pakistan by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation last month.

The covert operation, though, did not remain a secret for very long. Scooped by the Washington Post, it made headlines in Pakistan, with newspapers demanding an explanation from the Pakistan government on its role in Kansi's extradition.

Kansi was taken into custody in a small hotel in the remote, northwestern town of Dera Ghazi Khan by a joint team of 12 American and Pakistani soldiers on June 15. The FBI claims it has evidence that Kansi was involved in shooting down of Central Intelligence Agency employees outside the agency headquarters in the US.

For the US administration, the arrest is a major achievement in their fight against global ''terrorism''. But in Pakistan, the government is facing a barrage of criticism for flouting extradition rules and yielding to pressure from Washington.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief was roped in by US President Bill Clinton through an exchange of letters. And on the day of the operation, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is said to have telephoned the Pakistani premier, only after which the special US aircraft carrying FBI officials and Kansi was able to take off from Islamabad airport.

However, a government spokesman in Islamabad, seeking to play down the flood of criticism in the media, insisted Kansi's arrest was in the ''supreme national interest'', but failed to explain just how that justifies the violation of Pakistan's laws.

Instead of substantiating his statement that Kansi is ''no hero, he is a fugitive'', the spokesman, lashed out at critics, saying, ''Those who today talk of national honour or self-respect were dumb" when, in similar circumstances, Ramzi Yousuf (an Iraqi suspected of involvement in the World Trade Centre bombing in 1994) was extradited or when, "Benazir Bhutto, as prime minister, admitted to providing assistance to India in suppressing Sikh insurgency during her interview with BBC on February 13, 1994.''

What has Pakistan got in return for Kansi, a prize catch for the US administration? After his arrest, the White House spokesman in Washington said, ''The president makes it clear that any act of terror directed against the American people will result in punishment and even if it takes years, those we believe responsible will be tracked down, hunted down and brought to justice ...''

For Pakistan, though, according to an Islamabad-based political commentator, there is no apparent gain. Pakistan has ''as usual ... played its cards on the cheap, and not from a long-term strategic plane," the analyst said.

Unconfirmed reports say that the quid pro quo could be the cause for Washington's new-found willingness to hand over to Pakistan its air force officer squadron leader Farooq Khan, who was arrested in the US last May on charges of drug-smuggling. Khan was caught by US authorities at New York's JFK airport who flatly refused to hand him over to Islamabad. They were more accommodating six days after Kansi's arrest and extradition.

A joint communique issued in Washington on June 21 by Pakistan-US officials stated that ''there was a general agreement that the two sides need to exchange views regarding the case of squadron leader Farooq ... study all relevant aspects of the case so that there is no violation of the laws of either country.''

An extradition treaty of 1972 binds Pakistan and the United States. The last high-profile extradition was in 1994, of Ramzi Yousuf. But last month's arrest is the first time that the legal process was suspended and Washington was able to airlift Kansi without hours of his arrest.

The government had hoped to keep the covert operation a secret. But the fallout has not been political. The main opposition Pakistan People's Party, though bitter rivals of the ruling Muslim League, has said it supports the government's move in ''principle''.

Talking to the press, PPP leader Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister, said, ''I am sure Kansi has been extradited to the US by the government... because he is a proclaimed offender.'' Bhutto also defended her government's decision to extradite Ramzi, which she said was done after fulfilling all the legal formalities.

The most outspoken critic of the government though has been retired General Hameed Gul, the former chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence, the military intelligence wing, who said that by handing over Kansi ''the national conscience has been jolted, Pakistan's sovereignty has been challenged.''

But the government, secure with its two-third majority in the national assembly, has just swept aside all criticism. That it was able to rectify Pakistan's image in Washington as a state sponsoring ''terrorism'' seems to have been the overriding concern.