“The US government did not pay compensation, and the US position has been vindicated that Raymond Davis had immunity to prosecution,” US Embassy spokesperson Alberto Rodriguez told The Nation on Thursday. The reluctance of Foreign Office spokesperson Tehmina Janjua to offer her comment on US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s remarks that the United States did not pay compensation has further deepened the mystery.
However, sources privy to these developments insisted the Pakistani government solely manipulated the entire game from Diyat payment to indictment, acquittal and rushed-up departure of the killer.
Citing logical sequence of developments relating to Raymond Davis, sources said that four ministries – Foreign Affairs, Interior, Law, Justice and Human Rights and Ministry of Law of the Punjab – handled the matter.
Sources believed that the onus lies on either one or two or all of the four ministries handling the Raymond Davis case. However, some of the sources blamed the federal and the provincial law ministries for their direct involvement.
None of official spokespersons for the federal ministries of Interior as well as Law and Justice were available for comments till late at night.
Meanwhile, both the ruling PPP and the PML-N have started the blame game over the Davis fiasco. Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, Nisar Ali Khan, on Thursday declared the release of Raymond Davis a national tragedy and held the Centre responsible.
“The rulers struck the dirty deal for the sake of a few dollars and for appeasing their foreign masters,” he said, adding that they should have sought Dr Aafia’s release in turn for Davis’. He said the Punjab government is being dragged in the matter at the behest of the establishment for distracting attention from those responsible.
Ch Nisar said a severe protest would be registered against the PPP rulers on the floor of the National Assembly, and insisted that the incident has proved that the days of the present regime have been numbered.
However, sources called the statements by the PML-N as efforts to cover up the culpability of the Punjab government.
They were of the view that the Punjab government cannot absolves itself of the responsibility for the deal and every bid to plead innocence may embroil them further in the days to come.
