KARACHI:
The government has deiced to file a review petition challenging the Supreme Court verdict to acquit and release Ahmed Omer Saeed Sheikh, the prime accused in the Daniel Pearl murder case. This has ostensibly been done due to strong US pressure as its new Secretary of State, Antony John Blinken, has expressed serious concern on the issue. It was only after this that the federal government also decided to join the review proceedings initiated by the Sindh government.
The murder of any civilian should be considered as a heinous crime, and Daniel Pearl’s murder is no exception. However, what is note-worthy is the striking contrast with which our government had, in 2011, handled the murder case of two Pakistani youths at the hands of an American “contractor”, Raymond Davis, on our own soil. Just one telephone call by the then US President brought our entire government functionaries in a quick motion and he was rushed through a pseudo-legal process with indecent haste and out of the country. Our gullible countrymen were then assured by our government that the Americans had promised to hold Davis’ trial in the US courts. To this day, such promise has never been kept and Davis roams as a free man ever since entering his homeland.
M Jamil Akhtar Khan
Karachi
Published in The Express Tribune, February 2nd, 2021.
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