SPOTLIGHT: Hurt, bewildered, let down by everyone, no one in sight to turn to, the nation licks its wounds!

Pakistan's hour of shame!On Wednesday 16 March a friend phoned and asked in a breathless tone: have you heard? I had not. We all have other things to do than watch TV all the time. But I knew whatever it was it must be something about the remorseless killer. It was, and the news could not be worse.
The man had been let off by the Lahore Additional Sessions Judge hearing the case and he had already flown out of the country in a plane which was ready and waiting at the Lahore Airport since the night before to fly the "precious cargo" to Afghanistan on the first leg of its triumphant return to the land of the Star Spangled Banner. While back in Pakistan the rulers had unburdened themselves of a burden which fell with a crash on the hearts, minds and souls of ordinary Pakistanis!
THE UNTHINKABLE HAPPENED! It all happened so suddenly, at least for the common man (lulled by the Media into thinking that the case would take its own long course) that everyone was bewildered, angry and felt cheated and humiliated in turn - every one, that is except those who had planned the whole operation and had executed it so perfectly that it was all over before the rest of the people knew what was happening: Aircraft brought in, landed, got ready and flown out with the VVIP killer, all in broad daylight yet in total secrecy!
How thorough and efficient, not unlike the best clockwork money can buy. Raymond, whom I had dubbed "Our own Man of the Year" in Spotlight of 1 March 11 was now a free man, free to plan and execute schemes hurtful to Pakistan from the safety of his own country.
After all if the Drone operations and targeting could be controlled by people sitting 12,000 miles away on the other side of the globe, why could not Raymond resume his espionage activity from his own country putting to full use the store of vital knowledge he has gained about terrorist activity and way around Pakistan's vital installations? All courtesy of our spineless government with its alleged free-visa policy!
SNAKE WITH THE SHREW!While controversy raged for weeks past around the issue someone quipped: It was President Obama of America on one side and an Additional Session Judge of Pakistan on the other! Nevertheless, most people were lulled into feeling that for a change we had America where we wanted it, that for America, the Raymond case was like that of the proverbial snake with the shrew in its mouth, which it could neither swallow nor spit out since it would be fatal to it in either case. Was not Raymond in prison?
Was not he being tried in a court of law forming part of a rejuvenated Judiciary with an upright chief and a spotless team under him in the Supreme Court? Was not Raymond finally indicted despite all America had said and done? But then reality exploded in their faces!
MISTER KNOW-ALL A well-known political analyst and TV anchor (and master of cynicism to boot) who claimed to have access in the matter at the highest level, with American diplomats, politicians and Intelligence, with Pak Army top brass (ISI included), with Presidency, with the PM house, with Provincial Chiefs, with top leaders of the opposition parties.
In fact with all except someone on the Seventh Heaven (he fell short of claiming that), was categorical in stating that this very finale of the drama had been conceived and determined within hours of the incident in which three Pakistanis were slaughtered on a street in Lahore in broad daylight by an American shady character.
Would it not have been wonderful if Mr Know-all had revealed his precious facts of the case to people in Pakistan as soon as he got to know of them instead of waiting till the killer had been eased out of the country? Was he not thus a "facilitator" too?
In the same vein, a cynical suggestion by someone ran thus: The powers that be made a mistake in not bundling Raymond out of the country within two hours or so of his criminal act. They could then breathe in comfort instead of having to answer all sorts of awkward questions and facing a rising storm!
WHO BENEFITED FROM RAYMOND'S ESCAPE? Army and ISI according to some! But thereby hangs a tale! Having "outsourced" the war on terror to the Army, the Government in Islamabad was content to sit back and watch the "war" instead of helping the Army in its own sphere of activity, for example by starting a dialogue process with the aim of separating the diehard terrorists and foreign agents from the misguided and thus reducing the Army's burden which continues to lose men at an unacceptable rate.
In fact the Government in Islamabad had allegedly actually added to the Army's and ISI's troubles by relaxing to a dangerous extent its procedure for granting Visa's to Americans. Hundreds of agents of CIA or of organisations of the ilk of Blackwater or Xe allegedly found their way into Islamabad without a security check by either the Foreign Office or the ISI. As a result the country, especially Islamabad, is crawling with hundreds of operatives about whose background, aims and activities in Pakistan nothing is known to the host country.
This had reportedly been a sore subject between CIA and ISI on the one hand and between ISI and the Government in Islamabad on the other. So in the current crisis, so a theory goes, the Pak Army and the ISI saw their chance to do America a favour by masterminding and executing a plan of letting Raymond, America's precious spy and espionage agent, escape from the country in return for an American promise to stop CIA and its front organisations from involvement in operational activities in Pakistan.
That they succeeded in this by executing their part of the "bargain" is brandished as the silver lining in the sorry episode although we do not know to what extent America would fulfil its part of the reported bargain. Islamabad's dangerous, subservient and slavish policies vis-à-vis America appear to have thus compromised the country's interests in a number of dangerous ways. That "gain" by the Army and ISI must be weighed against the incalculable loss of self-esteem and morale for the overwhelming majority of Pakistanis.
Two reactions from America following the good turn surfaced: One a demand by General Petraeus that our Army should start operations in North Waziristan and two, an unprecedentedly lethal attack on a peaceful Jirga in that area which killed around sixty people!
THE QUESTION OF RESPONSIBILITY Why did the Foreign office fail to tell the High Court in clear terms that Raymond Davis did not enjoy Diplomatic Immunity despite a categorical statement by our erstwhile Foreign Minister Qureshi and by all four senior officials of his Ministry quoted by him on TV that there was no immunity in the case?
Instead, once the troublesome Foreign Minister was out of the way, they gave some hotchpotch information about the immunity question to the High Court expecting it to draw its own conclusions in the matter. The Federal Government must therefore be considered primarily responsible for the disaster. Its discomfort over the fact that Raymond was in our prison was obvious from the very beginning.
WHO ALL FACILITATED? After the Federal Government in Islamabad, the first name which comes to mind therefore is the Government in Punjab which failed to revise the Challan it had originally raised on the two counts of murder and illegal possession of arms when it came to know that Raymond carried evidence on his person which clearly showed that he was on an espionage and sabotage mission.
What business he otherwise had to photograph our military installations in our border areas? Why was he carrying incriminating evidence of the fact that he was in communication with terrorist groups in Pakistan? How come a CD was found on him which showed that he was involved in Drone attacks in Pakistan? Surely such serious revelations about him required that he be booked on corresponding counts and the original charge-sheet amended accordingly or an additional one presented before the court.
That all this was ignored points an incriminating finger at the Punjab provincial government. Surely it should be held accountable for this calamitous lapse. In fact soon after the escape Rana Sanaullah was first on the scene justifying the Session Court's decision.
And what about Raymond's American friends from the Consulate office who rushed to the scene on their colleague's rescue mission, driving recklessly in the wrong lane, knocked down another Pakistani riding a bike, dragged him pinned under their car, several yards long the road, killed him and ran away from the scene back to their killer sanctuary called the Consulate.
A country which comes down heavily on hit-and-run criminals in case of cats and dogs did not think much of a hit-and-run where a human life was involved. Unbelievably the killers not only escaped from the scene but from the City and the country back to their own. Should not our Governments both in Punjab and Islamabad resign in shame and atonement? What is the stuff our leaders are made off, may we ask.
DEMAND FOR SUO MOTU ACTION BY CJP The High Court did make noises about the immunity question not lying in its domain but it failed to precipitate the matter which it could have done by rejecting the information provided to it and asking the Foreign Office for a clear Government position on the immunity question. Then there were some mysterious happenings at the Additional District and Session Judge's Court in Lahore. Advocate Asad Manzoor Butt, who had been representing the families of murdered men, was suddenly told that he was sacked without giving him opportunity to meet his clients.
Not only that, he and the families of the murdered men were kept in a 4-hour-long detention on Wednesday and their Advocate was stopped from entering the Court Room. He was told that a new lawyer had been hired in his place and surprise, surprise, the new lawyer was no other than Raja Irshad Kiani who very recently represented ISI in the case of 11 missing persons who disappeared from the Adiala jail!
What a coincidence! Does the ISI's role in the matter need any further underlining? Despite all these unusual circumstances the Judge saw fit to move in what appeared to be a great rush to release the American killer. Not surprisingly, several eminent Jurists have added their weight to popular demand that the CJP take suo motu notice of the entire conduct of the case. People have learnt to see the judiciary as a court of last resort and if that proves to be a mirage as well then they would be driven to desperate, wayward behaviour.
HOW MEDIA WAS EXPLOITED SO EFFECTIVELY! Part of the surprise was caused by the fact that the Media repeatedly showed the footage of Fahim's widow demanding Qisas on her death bed and refusing to accept blood money. The absence from their houses of the families of the murdered men was projected by the Media as an attempt by them to escape pressure from America and its agents trying to force them to accept Diyet! Whereas, it now seems, the families of the murdered men were actually busy negotiating a deal under Diyet. How off the mark was the Media and how comprehensively it was used to serve the very opposite of the ends it said it upheld!
FRAGMENTARY PROTESTS Within hours of the killer's release, sporadic demonstrations started at more than a dozen places across the country. But being spontaneous, they lacked strategy and planning which is understandable. But even on Friday where a really big demonstration could have been planned and executed, it did not happen. A co-ordinated show of the country's solidarity and rejection of what has happened, with Pakistan's flags carried by the participants rather than party's flags (as suggested by Former Chief ISI Chief Hamid Gul) would had more impact than scattered demonstrations we saw and continue to see.
The common man in Pakistan is a man of courage and has proved his devotion to his faith and to the country time and again. But an upright leader who would lead us by example in times of crisis is nowhere to be seen. For now, therefore, we must live with what will surely go down in our history as our Hour of Shame.
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