ISLAMABAD – Pakistan’s foreign policy managers expect the US to come up with a request of diplomatic immunity for Raymond Davis, but it is almost impossible for Islamabad to accept any such demand owing to the rising anti-Americanism across the country.
US Ambassador in Islamabad Cameron Munter called on Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir at the Foreign Office on Friday to discuss the Lahore incident. “The US envoy asked for consular access for the American national and it was accepted,” said a senior official here on condition of anonymity.
“However, the US envoy was told the government would discuss the issue with the Punjab government which was directly involved in the incident,” he said, adding that the US ambassador was assured that legal course would be followed in the case. The official said, “We expect that the US will seek diplomatic immunity for Raymond and this is based on indications that we have from diplomatic circles here and also information that we are receiving from Washington.”
However, he said the government, which was being severely criticised for being submissive to the US, was most likely to come under intense domestic pressure to be tough on the American. “We are already seeing small protests around the country and it is expected that these demonstrations will grow larger in coming days,” he said. Another significant issue is the lack of clarity as for the position that Raymond is holding in the US Consulate in Lahore and even the US embassy’s two-sentence statement on Friday didn’t clarify the important issue.
It is a worldwide practice that under globally accepted international conventions, diplomats are generally free from prosecution, but the level of immunity varies according to the job they do and it is not automatically granted. “For instance, a temporary consultant, working at a diplomatic mission may not be protected at all,” the official said.
In its statement, the US embassy confirmed that a consulate staffer was involved in an incident on Thursday that regrettably resulted in the loss of life. A Pakistani diplomat said one problem for the Pakistani authorities was the questions that were being raised about the “real” identity of the US citizen involved in the Lahore incident.
“The way he behaved has led to a conclusion already in the minds of many in this country that Raymond couldn’t be an ordinary diplomat despite the fact that probe has just begun into the incident,” he said, wishing not to be named. He said the present government was already blamed for being too lenient when it came to the issuance of visas to Americans intending to travel to Islamabad and Pakistani security agencies were worried that there might be some people with “dubious” character taking advantage of that leniency.
“Now, we again witness a widespread debate of possible links between infamous US private security firm “Blackwater” and the arrested American in Lahore and all these things are creating lots of trouble for the government,” he said. However, a western diplomat said Raymond, if proved that he acted in self-defence, stood a good chance of avoiding prosecution under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (April 18, 1961).
He said that according to the Vienna Convention, Pakistan had the right to ask the US to lift the accused diplomat’s immunity, but history showed that principles laid down in that convention nearly half a century ago had come to the rescue of several envoys, who were found guilty of killing or injuring ordinary people in various incidents across the world.
