Raymond Davis release is being resented by a cross-section of population for different reasons. Some have been genuinely shocked the way Davis killed two Pakistanis. They want justice to be done. There are others who are keen to make use of any issue to derail the system. They had worked hard to play up the matter while building unrealistic expectations regarding the verdict. They were shocked to find that the court had given a judgment against their wishes. That Davis was released and dispatched abroad was all the more mortifying for them. They are now condemning everyone that could in any way be connected with the episode. The court is being criticised for an alleged miscarriage of justice, the Punjab government for allowing Davis leave the jail, the Army and ISI for making his quick departure possible, Saudi Arabia for arranging the Diyat money and the federal government for allowing all this to happen under its watch.
Davis had committed the crime in Lahore and the provincial administration had gotten a case registered against him. Meanwhile, he was kept in a jail administered by the Punjab government. Davis was set free by a court in Lahore. This being a high-profile case, the Punjab government and all its agencies were supposed to be watching the minutest detail of each and every development. Meanwhile, the legal heirs of two victims were approached and persuaded to accept the Diyat money. The big amount was urgently arranged and neatly divided among them. Davis was released and, despite his name being on the ECL, put on a plane which took him post haste to the American base in Bagram. One had expected that the Punjab administration would come out clean on the developments instead of hinting at the involvement of other institutions while maintaining total ignorance about the affair. Shahbaz Sharif being unaware regarding the role played by his own law minister and the provincial bureaucracy, strikes as rather odd.
Meanwhile Gilani has come out with the ownership of the decision to free Raymond Davis maintaining that there was a consensus among the government and opposition in line with the public sentiment to let the court decide Davis fate. While one may differ with the courts decision, no one has the right to call for street agitation against it. Those seeking its reversal should do so in accordance with the law.
