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The Foreign Ministry informed the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday that Raymond Davis, the double murder accused “cold blooded killer”, came to Pakistan on an official business visa issued on the request made by the American authorities and that Raymond Allen Davis is his actual name as notified by the USZ Embassy in Pakistan. Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Naveed Inayat Malik, on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs, furnished a reply to four petitions against diplomatic immunity for Davis. They reply, however, fell short of clearly articulating Davis is a diplomat or not. Another report quoted from the DAG’s reply that the ministry’s record is silent (or blank) if Davis is a diplomat. The DAG denied any alteration, on the part of the ministry, in the official record relating to Davis or that the ministry was interfering in the investigations of the case. He told LHC Chief Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry that the USZ Embassy approached the ministry on January 27 with a request to release Davis to the custody of USZ Consul General in Lahore. The DAG said as the embassy claimed Davis was holding a diplomatic passport, the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations may be consulted (by the court) to address the points raised through the present petitions. The law officer, however, did not come up with any precise answer to the question of diplomatic status of Raymond Davis nor he presented to the court any certificate in terms of section 4 of the Diplomatic and Consular Privileges Act of 1972 despite a strong call from the petitioner’s counsel, Muhammad Azhar Siddique.
With reference to the trial of Raymond Davis, the law officer said the case was already sub judice before a trial court on account of the murders, and the question relating to the status of the accused may also be taken up there. To the point whether Davis was an employee of the USZ Embassy and if he enjoyed diplomatic status, the ministry offered a ‘suggested reply’ invoking the last order made by the court on a petition by Ch Ahmad Masood, saying the court has already taken cognizance of the matter, and if any matter of immunity arises in future, it can be determined by the court. The bench heard the point of view of the petitioners, including of Barrister Javed Iqbal Jafree, Ghazi Ilmuddin and Azhar, and disposed of the petitions, observing that the immunity question would be determined by the trial court in the first place. The court remarked any certificate to claim diplomatic status and immunity as such for the accused may be furnished to the trial court and the LHC may come into picture after the trial court has decided the issue. The LHC CJ said no one has made such a claim for a decision by the (high) court. He said the custody of the accused was with the trial court that would go on till the matter is decided.
Barrister Javed wanted the (high) court’s involvement with the question whether Davis should be administered a lie detection test, particularly stressing that Davis isn’t his real name and the accused entered Pakistan using a pseudo name. He said Davis previously served as a CIA and FBI agent and now served Blackwater. He said the track of the case may change if he is found to have travelled to Pakistan under a fake name cheating the Pakistani authorities. He opposed shifting Davis from the present jail, fearing the shifting would help manoeuvre his escape to America as “it has happened in the case of the two Americans who killed Ubaid in the hit-and-run episode while setting out to rescue Davis”. Azhar Siddique pleaded the Act of 1972 was conflicting with the fundamental rights guaranteed in the Constitution. The court on this plea issued notice to the federal government for March 29 while disposing of rest of the petitions by a short order.
Agencies add: Deputy Attorney General Naveed Inayat Malik, in the reply to the LHC, informed the court that Davis was a USZ citizen who came to Pakistan on an official business visa. He said Raymond Allen Davis’ record of diplomatic immunity was not available in the ministry. He told the court that the ministry did not change or try to change the record of the USZ killer at any stage. The tightly-secured courtroom was packed with lawyers, journalists and relatives of the men killed in the incident, anticipating a development in the case that has provoked angry anti-American protests. The long-awaited decision will now move to the lower court trying Davis on double murder allegations, which is due to meet again on Wednesday to frame the charges. But the full implications of Monday’s high court decision for the USZ immunity claim were unclear, and a USZ embassy spokesman in Islamabad said officials were studying the court’s written judgment for clarification.
