With Parliament if it wants to probe Raymond Davis affair: Khawaja Asif
With Parliament if it wants to probe Raymond Davis affair: Khawaja Asif: Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif said on Friday that he will stand with Parliament if it wants to investigate the Raymond Davis case. Speaking in a Senate session, he said that raising the Davis issue only for point-scoring will not be constructive for the country. He added that both an in-camera session or a public inquiry on the case will be beneficial for the nation.
He said that the Parliament should look into the matter of how the nation’s honour was compromised, adding that it should also ascertain whether decisions on the Davis case were taken by institutions or individuals.
“I don’t think any institution was involved in the case. People may have their personal interests attached to it,” he said, adding that, “to strengthen their positions some people may have played their role to fulfil their international commitments.”
Asif informed that the Pakistani government paid money to free Davis after a deal was struck between his victims’ heirs and the government.
“Only God knows where the money was taken to give to free him,” he said.
Davis — a CIA operative who sparked a diplomatic row after gunning down two men on the streets of Lahore in January 2011 — recently penned his side of the story for the first time in a memoir titled ‘The Contractor: How I Landed in a Pakistani Prison and Ignited a Diplomatic Crisis’.
According to Davis, then US secretary of state John Kerry, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz chief Sharif, then president Asif Zardari, then ISI chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha and then envoy to US Hussain 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, he has claimed in his book.
Davis became the centre of controversy in Pakistan moments after local police registered a case against him on charges of killing two Pakistani men at Qurtaba Chowk in downtown Lahore in January 2011. A third Pakistani man was struck and killed by a vehicle that was reportedly racing to Davis’ aid.
The violent confrontation escalated into a diplomatic crisis, making front-page headlines across the world and straining ties between Islamabad and Washington, as US policymakers pressed for diplomatic immunity for Davis and pushed for his immediate release
The CIA contractor spent 49 days in Pakistani custody, and was released on March 16, 2011 after the families of the two slain men reached an agreement and were paid $2.4 million in blood money.
The Lahore High Court acquitted him on all charges and Davis was flown out of Pakistan.
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