Trial of Raymond Davis: Senate asks government not to succumb to any pressure

The Senate on Tuesday asked the government not to succumb to any sort of pressure regarding the trial Raymond Davis, an US embassy officials facing double murder charges in Lahore.
Speaking separately on points of order, senators from both sides of the political aisle condemned the incident of shooting two Pakistani citizens by the US embassy official in Lahore and suggested that the Parliament should send a clear message that being a sovereign country it would not allow anyone to violate law of the land.
Advisor to Prime Minister Mian Raza Rabbani suggested that the Parliament should give a clear message that no 'double standard' exist in Pakistan. "We are sovereign nation and the law of the land must be applicable on all alike", he said, adding that under what rights Davis be given license to shoot Pakistani citizens if he supposedly enjoys diplomatic immunity under Vienna Convention.
"We will not tolerate such immunity," he said. He further said that it must be made clear to the Americans that Pakistan has its own law and the decision in the Davis case will be dealt with by our own courts.
Senator Professor Khurshid Ahmed of Jamaat-i-Islami was of the view that the US was exerting pressure on Pakistani authorities to get its citizen released, which was against national sovereignty. He said that the US media was itself confirming Davis's identity as an employee of a private company.
He revealed that over 60 people allegedly associated with US spy agencies were operating in Pakistan, out of which 40 are deployed in Karachi, whereas eight are working in Lahore. He warned that people of Pakistan and parliament would never tolerate any kind of immunity if given to Davis and warned that there would be a mass protest across the country.
Senator Tariq Azeem of PML-Q though appreciated the stance of the government regarding Davis so far, he urged Foreign Office to come out with a clear stance and also make it public if Davis was enjoying any diplomatic immunity under Vienna Convention.
He further said that the US State Department was deliberately hiding identity of its citizen involved in killing of the Pakistani citizens and feared that he might be issued a diplomatic passport now to claim immunity for his release. He said that the visa issued to Davis had expired on December 15 last year and asked the government to inform the house if any extension was given.
A lady senator Farah Aqeel revealed that she attended a dinner of the US embassy and she was told by an official that despite all the US would get released Davis. She said that the US official, who she did not name, further said that Pakistanis must not be hyper over the incident as they were in our control.
Senator Ilyas Bilour of ANP was of the view that Davis was an alleged killer, who killed two Pakistani citizens in the broad daylight and he must undergo trail as per law of the land without any foreign pressure. Meanwhile, speaking on a point of order, ANP's senators including Haji Adeel and Ilyas Bilour strongly opposed to what they said that the reported proposal government was considering to have two different prices of petroleum products in the country. They said that under the plan the POL prices would be lesser in Karachi as compared to Peshawar on the basis of their distance from the sea port.
They said if this was true then Khyber Pakhtunkhwa should also be given the right to fix different prices of electricity and gas being the main producer. Meanwhile, the House also referred a privilege motion moved by Senator Jahangir Badar against Secretary Sports of Punjab for not appearing before Senate's Standing Committee on Sports. The House also adopted three adjournment motions seeking debate on the excessive load shedding.