Pak has no plans to trade airline suspect with Britain

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's foreign ministry on Monday denied reports that a Briton held over a plot to bomb transatlantic jets would be extradited to Britain in exchange for six separatist leaders.

The arrest of British national Rashid Rauf in August by Pakistan sparked a worldwide security alert and arrests in Britain amid fears of a conspiracy to blow up airliners flying from London to the United States.

Rauf's family last week filed a legal petition alleging that Islamabad was negotiating with London to extradite him in return for six wanted Baluch nationalists who are based in Britain, and seeking to stop such a move.

"No," Pakistan foreign ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam replied when asked if Pakistan had any such plan, which was first reported by Britain's Guardian newspaper in March.

Aslam said that currently Pakistan and Britain had no extradition treaty but that a draft accord was in its final stages.

The 25-year-old Rauf faces charges including impersonation, carrying a fake identity card and fake documents, which he denies. He is still being held by security forces under special anti-terror legislation.

In December an anti-terrorism court dropped terror charges against Rauf but its order was suspended when the provincial Punjab government appealed to a higher court.