Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah has called for the formation of a joint investigation team (JIT) to ascertain who paid Rs 240 million to the heirs of victims of CIA contractor Raymon Davis as per the Diyat law.
In an interview with a private TV channel, he said there was pressure to not register an FIR against Davis after he had shot dead two men on January 27, 2011 but the Punjab government went on with it and lodged a case.
Pakistan Peoples Party’s Qamar Zaman Kaira said the US government had attempted to pressurise the then federal and Punjab governments, as well as the army, to release Davis. But the central role played in this entire episode was by the country’s ‘agencies’, he added.
Kaira admitted that the Diyat money was channelled through the federal government but was later refunded by ‘whosoever’ paid for it.
Defence analyst Lt-Gen (retd) Amjad Shoaib claimed the decision to release Davis was taken by the civilian government and then ISI chief Lt-Gen Shujaa Pasha was asked to implement it.
The ISI chief held meetings with the entire political leadership of the country, excluding Nawaz Sharif who was not in the country at the time, which agreed that Davis’s release was the best way forward.
Shoaib also rejected Davis’s claim that the ISI chief was text messaging senior US government officials while Davis’s final hearing was taking place on March 16, 2011. He said Pasha never went to the hearing, adding that ISI officers, were, however present inside the court room.
