ISLAMABAD – Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Tuesday avoided comments over the allegations levelled by PML-N MNA Khwaja Saad Rafique that the federal government was having two faces over the issue of US citizen Raymond Davis – one for the US administration and the other for the people of Pakistan.
As soon as the prime minister joined the National Assembly proceedings, Khwaja Saad Rafique, on a point of order, sought the attention of the prime minister and asked him why the federal government was passing the buck to the Punjab government. Soon after Rafique passed these remarks, the prime minister left the House without responding to the points raised by the PML-N leader.
“Though no evidence has been produced to prove him a classified diplomat, yet under the law, no diplomat can carry weapons,” he remarked. The PML-N leader did not stop here as he went on to claim that the federal government was trying to pit people against one another. “The federal government has two faces – one for the foreigners for telling them the Punjab government was against Raymond’s release, but it is being communicated to media that Raymond would not be released,” he argued.
Rafique said Raymond could not prove his diplomatic identity even after the lapse of five days. He urged the government to tell the US administration through its foreign office that the way the US courts had handled the case of Dr Aafia Siddiqui independently and she was convicted for 86 years without killing even a single US citizen, the same was the case with Pakistan’s judiciary which was also independent. He asked the government to work in collaboration with the Punjab government and avoid confusing the matter.
PML-Q legislator Attiya Inayatullah said the US mercenaries were involved in killing the Pakistanis through drone attacks, but this was a new phenomenon that they were killing the Pakistanis through undercover agents. “Raymond is not a diplomat and rather he runs an institution which provides undercover agents across the globe. He is not entitled to diplomatic immunity, so he has to be dealt with under the Pakistani laws for extrajudicial killings,” she remarked.
Sahibzada Fazal Karim, the chief of Sunni Ittehad Council, called for a probe into the extension in visa for Raymond Davis and alleged that his visa had expired in December 2010. “It should also be investigated that around 100 undercover agents like Raymond Davis were operating in the federal capital. Why are the international human rights organisations and local NGOs keeping mum over the killing of Pakistanis by a US killer?” he questioned. He also wondered why the government had allotted a huge piece of land to the US embassy in Karachi for the establishment of its consulate.
Responding to the points raised by the opposition MNAs, Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira urged the parliament as well as the media to avoid a debate over the issue of Raymond Davis as the same could ‘influence’ the investigation or the court proceedings. He assured the House that no concessions would be given to the US citizen who had killed two Pakistani citizens.
He also brushed aside the notion that the federal government was pressurising the Punjab government to release the accused. Regarding the allotment of land for the US consulate in Karachi, Kaira said the land was allotted under the law by the previous government.
