Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Sunday that the provincial government had nothing to do with the Raymond Davis saga.
He was speaking to the media during an official meeting in Lahore. Shehbaz also clarified that the Punjab government had nothing to do with paying the Diyat money for Davis.
He said questions related to Davis should be asked from those mentioned in the CIA contractor’s book. Interestingly, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said on Saturday there was pressure to not register an FIR against Davis after he had shot dead two men in January 27, 2011 but the Punjab government went on with it and lodged a case.
Davis recently released his tell-all tale, titled ‘The Contractor: How I landed in a Pakistani prison and ignited a diplomatic crisis.
In his book, Davis has expressed displeasure at then foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s decision to not grant diplomatic immunity to him.
Even though then US Secretary of State John Kerry considered Qureshi a friend, he [Qureshi] did not help me out, writes Davis.
“When Kerry flew to Pakistan on February 15, 2011, to attempt to broker a deal that might spring me from the Lahore prison where I was being detained on judicial remand, Qureshi didn’t act like much of a friend. Rather than giving in to the government’s wish that I be granted diplomatic immunity, he’d actually resigned his position three days after the incident at Mozang Chowk, and two weeks later he remained undeterred,” says Davis in his book.
In a meeting of top Pakistani officials, both President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani tried to convince Qureshi to change his hardline stance, but he said in a press conference the next day that he would not budge, Davis added.
He said the Pakistan government paid the Diyat money to the victims, which was later reimbursed by the US government.
According to Davis, John Kerry, Nawaz Sharif, Asif Zardari, former ISI chief Gen Ahmed Shujaa Pasha and Husain Haqqani helped in his release from the Kot Lakhpat Jail.
Apart from the ISI chief, several other officials of the intelligence agency were present in the court at the time of his release.
Davis says no one was more helpful than Gen Pasha in his release in Pakistan. Gen Pasha, who was in Lahore’s sessions court, had a mobile phone in his hand through which he was updating the then US ambassador, Cameron Munter, about the court hearing.
