Releasing Raymond Davis

A day prior to issuing a somewhat strident statement, the US embassy had said that it did not want the fatal shooting of two Pakistanis, and the running over of another by a US consulate vehicle, to cloud relations between the two countries. However, the statement released on January 29, by demanding that Raymond Davis be “immediately” released from custody since he was a diplomat and hence protected under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, is likely to cause an equal, if not greater, public outcry among many people. It will be seen as an attempt to subvert the course of law and justice in this particular case. It will also reinforce the widely-held view in this and many other developing countries that powerful nations like the US do not care much for the justice systems of countries such as Pakistan.

And while the workings of the legal system may indeed leave much to be desired, the focus in this case is not that. Several important questions need to be answered and sorted out before Mr Davis can be released. Perhaps the most important of these (also raised in an article on these pages today by an eminent lawyer from Lahore, a graduate of one of America’s best law schools) is the issue of Mr Davis’s identity. Is he a diplomat (according to an ABC News report, he is a private security consultant) and if so, then the immunity given to one can be waived only by his own government. Other matters relate to standard operating procedures used by diplomats in Pakistan, even those working undercover (though it is yet to be ascertained either way, whether Mr Davis was an undercover official), especially with regard to carrying weapons and travelling in vehicles with local number plates.

Were the Pakistani authorities aware of these measures, since they would presumably violate the law, and if diplomats are allowed such things then under what authority? Also, what happened to the driver of the jeep that came to Mr Davis’s rescue and in the process ran over and killed another Pakistani? What is his identity and what is to become of the suspect? Surely, these matters need to be settled before the government can make a determination to release Mr Davis.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 30^th, 2011.