LHC allows press clippings to be used in Davis case

LHC orders clippings of newspapers about Raymond Davis’s alleged spying activities be made part of the court record.

LAHORE: On Wednesday Lahore High Court (LHC) chief justice, Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry, accepted an application ordering that clippings of newspapers about Raymond Davis’s alleged spying activities be made part of the court record.

The CJ passed this order, while accepting an application from Advocate Muhammad Azher Siddique, who presented clippings of several newspapers and internet material comprising 225 pages before the court. Siddique submitted that Davis was involved in spying in Pakistan. He said the US government had also acknowledged this. He said that the press clippings must be declared part of the official record to prosecute the case against Davis. The court adjourned the hearing till March 14.

The court also accepted another application by Siddique requesting that the court rely on photocopies of such materials instead of demanding certified copies. However, the court refused to declare the US government a necessary party to these petitions. Siddique had submitted  that it was necessary to make the US ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter a necessary party in the petitions but the court said that their was no need for it. The judge held that it was the Pakistani government which would decide the question of immunity.

In his petitions, Siddique referred to various news items in the foreign and local media with respect to the US government’s reported plan to move the International Court of Justice. He said that according to a news item the US had withdrawn from the optional protocol to the Vienna Convention on Counselor Rights Proposed in 1963.

The petitioner said that former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice had informed UN Secretary General Kofi Anan about the decision to withdraw from the protocol in a letter dated March 7, 2005, adding that the US intended to move the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Davis case during the pendency of the current petitions. Siddique said that there was a possibility that either the US or Pakistan government might take such action. He requested that in the interest of justice and fair play the court should settle the issue.

Advocate Siddique has already challenged the claimed diplomatic immunity for accused Davis under Vienna Conventions, describing it as being in conflict with the Constitution of Pakistan as well as the United Nations charter on safety and security of subjects of a nation.

The applicant stated that under the Constitution of Pakistan none of the constituents of the executive, including the president and the federal government, was authorised to extend immunity to its citizens or foreigners when it could endanger national interests.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 3^rd, 2011.