Pakistan anger knows few
bounds in the case of U.S. Consulate
employee Raymond Davis.
All sides agree that he shot and killed
two people there last
week, and a third was killed by Consulate
employees speeding to
the scene of the shooting.
The Frontier Post, Pakistan
If Raymond Davis
is Freed, Islamabad Will Not Be Forgiven
“If
Musharraf turned Pakistan into a sprawling game park for American adventurers,
President Zardari has turned it into a Wild West where cowboy Yankees can poach.”
Spokeswoman for the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party, Fauzia Wahab: Her assertion that American Raymond Davis is protected by the Vienna Conventions may have made her the most despised woman in the country.
This couldn’t be a slip-up by
Fauzia Wahab, the information
secretary of the [ruling] Pakistan Peoples
Party: She read out the relevant passages of the Vienna
Conventions to establish that American double murderer Raymond Davis enjoys
diplomatic immunity. After all, she couldn’t be so naïve as to mistakenly issue
such a categorical assertion on such a sensitive issue. There
was obviously a method to her madness. Hers was unmistakably a choreographed
act: she would make the statement, and then the movers and shakers would
immediately jump in, refuting her pronouncement and asserting that neither was
it her party’s stance nor that of the government’s. The clear intent was to
sound out public opinion on releasing the American double killer.
But why is the Islamabad leadership
so hell-bent on playing with fire? The issue is clearly an emotional one,
charged with boiling public sentiment. If the slayer is let off under some
ruse, such as a contrived
diplomatic immunity, public anger will in all likelihood burst into a
storm, to the great woe of the leadership. Now that the case is before the
courts, Islamabad must l forego any hanky-panky in their own interest and let them decide. A court decision, whatever it is, will
be accepted by the people, though if Davis is freed - grudgingly. Already, the
public is greatly frustrated by the leadership’s not-so-deft moves to somehow
set the American slayer free. They've shown no regard for the grief of the
families of the two Pakistani nationals whom he put to death, let alone the
third unfortunate victim. That man, who the slayer’s pals crushed under the
speeding wheels of their vehicles, has become a forgotten nonentity, even to
our own politicos, media and commentators who are playing to the gallery.
Despite his admittedly
heinous crime of double murder, the Americans are so concerned about their citizen
that they have employed every type of bullying, blackmail and coercion. Seeing
that, it really hurts to watch our leaders show no such concern, let alone
compassion or sympathy, for our own dead. As was previously pointed out, one of
the victims has been forgotten by our politicians and media celebrities, his
death disregarded as though he were a worm crushed underfoot, and the widow of
another has taken her life in despair.
But why are our leaders so
intent on burning every boat and committing themselves to uncertain shores?
History shows that Americans are always the first to jump a sinking ship. For
30 years, Hosni Mubarak played their errand boy in the Middle East. Despite
that, they batted not an eye at abandoning him once they found the going rough
in the face of his people’s popular revolt. For decades, the Shah of Iran was
their blue-eyed boy and much-eulogized hatchet man in the region. But when the
crunch came and a furious people’s revolution overthrew him, they refused to
grant him asylum and left him seeking refuge in Morocco, the Bahamas and Panama,
only to die in Egypt.
Here in Pakistan, although he
was their servile lackey, when Americans found he had turned into a liability,
they turned away from Pervez Musharraf. If conditions take a similar turn,
which they certainly will if our leaders continues to slap our own people to
earn America’s favor, will the results be any different? Going even further than
Musharraf in this frailty, the servility that the government humiliatingly shows
Americans has lost them much of our people’s respect and credibility. If
Musharraf turned Pakistan into a sprawling game park for American adventurers,
President Zardari has turned it into a Wild West where cowboy Yankees can poach.
To our people’s great anger, their adventurous exploits here have witnessed
phenomenal growth under Zardari’s watch.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
If Zardari earns the people’s
scorn and indignation by acting outside the law of our land by releasing the
murderer Davis to please America in the short term, he may rue it later. Doing
so may also place him in a very difficult confrontation with the judiciary. He
would do well to sit back and let the courts rule.
