November 13, 2002	Wednesday	Ramazan 7, 1423

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LAHORE, Nov 12: The US government has turned down Pakistan government’s request that the sentence of Aimal Kasi should be commuted.

Interior minister Moin Haider made this statement while talking to reporters on a visit to the National Database and Registration Authority’s (Nadra) Swift Booking Centre here on Monday.

Mr Kasi, a Pakistani citizen, has been sentenced to death for killing two CIA men in the US. He is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Nov 14.

Asked as to why the government had bowed to world pressure and handed over various Pakistanis to foreign states, he said that under international law, it was compulsory to hand over an offender to the country where the offence was committed. Moreover, he said the government did not want to start a conflict by rejecting the call of world powers.

He did not directly reply to a question as to why the government was extending unilateral cooperation to other countries, as it did not seek custody of the Pakistanis who had fled abroad after plundering the national wealth. However, he urged the world powers and human rights champions to give attention to this issue as well.

He said the countries concerned should return the plundered wealth while they might keep the plunderers in their custody.

He hinted at the release of Dr Amir Aziz Khan by saying that “something good was happening” on this front, when he was asked about the fate of the orthopaedist.

Answering a question, he said the government was trying to secure the release of 53 Pakistanis lodged at the US naval base in Cuba.

Asked if the government would take any action on the reported meetings of Pakistani politicians with senior officials of various governments abroad, the minister said he did not want to say anything controversial in this regard.

He also declined to comment on the Gen Musharraf-Qazi Husain Ahmad meeting in Islamabad.

The minister also met the people lined up to get computerized cards. Some of them complained that they were facing problems like delay in delivery of the cards, wrong entries, etc. Mr Haider said delays occurred as the printing machinery had been out of order for four months.

He claimed that so far 18 million cards — 40 per cent of the total — had been printed and delivered to the people.

Admitting that there were flaws in the performance of Nadra, he attributed them to the big size of the project.