March 25, 2003	Tuesday	Muharram 21, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, March 24: Former interior minister Naseerullah Babar has said that the arrest in New York of a former army captain on charges of money laundering has vindicated the efficacy of investigations into white-collar crimes undertaken by the Pakistan People’s Party government in mid-1990s.

The US authorities in New York arrested on Friday Khalid Shaheen Butt on charges of running money laundering operations.

“It was the PPP government which had first investigated Khalid Shaheen Butt for several white-collar crimes. The former captain was then a US resident and beyond the reach of Pakistani law enforcement agencies,” Mr Babar said.

The PPP government, however, had “incontrovertible evidence of Mr Butt’s involvement in drugs and money laundering,” the former minister said.

“On the basis of this evidence, the interior ministry had moved the US government for the extradition of Khalid Shaheen Butt. A dossier on his illegal activities was handed over to the then US ambassador in support of the government’s request for his extradition.

“The ambassador, however, informed the government that Mr Butt was already under investigations in the US for some crimes and that the case for his extradition be taken up after his prosecution.

“It appears that Butt somehow escaped prosecution and conviction in the US at that time as a result of which the case of his extradition to Pakistan remained in limbo.