Startling disclosures

Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif confirmed this week that the federal government had paid the blood money to the heirs of three people killed by US contractor Raymond Davis in Lahore in 2011. He made this disclosure while responding to a call-attention notice in the Senate about revelations made by Davis in his book The Contractor which was released online about a month back. This statement by the foreign minister confirms what has been speculated for a long time and spotlights the role of the government in protecting Davis who was guilty of murdering three Pakistanis and allowing him to get away scot free. The Raymond Davis episode will remain a shameful part of Pakistan’s history where different state agencies got together and paved the way for this CIA contractor to leave the country. To add insult to injury, even the blood money for his release was not paid by the Americans but by the Pakistani taxpayer which itself is cause for an inquiry as to who allowed such a precedent to be set in the first place.

In his book, Davis has named a number of Pakistani agencies as being behind his release. What is important for us as Pakistanis is to understand what the compulsions were for the government and its agencies to facilitate the release of Davis and what Islamabad got in exchange. In the past as well a number of such deals have been concluded by state elements without full disclosure to parliament. If we talk about the supremacy of parliament, we should also understand that our parliament has the right to inquire into such deals and understandings concluded on behalf of the state. At a time when the US accuses Pakistan of not doing enough in the war on terrorism, one must take into account the instances where Pakistan went out of its way to accommodate US interests.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 27^th, 2017.

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