'Immature political child': Imran Khan's party slams Bilawal over extradition remarks

Describing former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari as an “immature political child,” Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party has slammed him for suggesting that Islamabad could extradite “individuals of concern” to India as a confidence-building measure.

In an interview with Al Jazeera on Friday, Pakistan People's Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal said, “As part of a comprehensive dialogue with Pakistan, where terrorism is one of the issues that we discuss, I am sure Pakistan would not be opposed to any of these things.”

He was responding to a question about extraditing Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Saeed and Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar as possible concessions and good-faith gestures to India.

Both LeT and JeM have been banned by Pakistan, according to the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA). Saeed, the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack mastermind, is currently serving a 33-year sentence for terror financing. Azhar, a UN-designated global terrorist, has been proscribed by NACTA and living in an undisclosed place for the last many years.

Reacting to Bilawal's remarks, Sheikh Waqas Akram, spokesperson of the jailed former prime minister Imran Khan-led PTI, in a statement on Saturday, said the PPP leader is an “immature political child”, the Dawn newspaper reported on Sunday.

Bilawal's proposal was ill-advised and detrimental to Pakistan’s national security narrative, and such statements humiliate the country on international platforms, he said. “We fail to understand why Bilawal is so keen on appeasing India,” he said.

The former foreign minister, Akran said, was proving time and again that he lacked political wisdom, vision, and understanding of regional geopolitics.

“Bilawal has become a symbol of confusion and contradiction in Pakistan’s foreign policy discourse... PPP was founded by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on the legacy of Kashmir, but today, Bilawal is betraying that legacy by pursuing political gains at the expense of Kashmiri blood,” he said.

In the interview, Bilawal said that cases prosecuted against these “individuals” (Saeed and Azhar) were those related to Pakistan, such as terrorist financing. However, he noted that prosecuting them for cross-border terrorism was difficult due to what he claimed was “noncompliance” from Delhi.

“India is refusing to comply with certain basic elements that require that conviction to take place,” he said.

“It’s important … to present evidence within these courts, for people to come over from India to testify, to put up with whatever the counter-accusations will be. If India is willing to be cooperative in that process, I am sure there will be no hurdle in extraditing any individual of concern,” Bilawal said.

Pressed on the whereabouts of Saeed and Azhar, Bilawal stated that the former was incarcerated, while Islamabad believes the latter is in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, Hafiz Saeed's son too has questioned Bilawal's remarks. “Bilawal Bhutto should not have talked about extradition of Pakistanis. His statement is against the state policy, national interest and sovereignty, and we strongly condemn it,” Saeed's son Hafiz Talha Saeed said in a statement in Lahore on Sunday.

“Bilawal Bhutto is either unaware of ground realities or promoting the enemy’s narrative,” he said and questioned, could a state representative talk about handing over citizens to an enemy country?

Talha defended his father saying none of Saeed's action is against Pakistan.

Saeed, who has been in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat Jail since 2019, was subsequently convicted in terror financing cases for multiple years. His LeT is responsible for carrying out the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks that killed 166 people.