IHC requested to detect trail of blood money in Raymond Davis case

ISLAMABAD: . A petitioner has sought help from the Islamabad High Court (IHC) to get the trail of the $2.4 million paid as compensation to the legal hears of the two men killed in Lahore on January 27, 2011 by American CIA’s contractor Raymond Davis.

Petitioner Tariq Asad Advocate has said he is motivated to file the petition because the blood money had been paid to the heirs ‘under coercion and undue influence’ by authorities of Pakistan from the public treasury and not by Davis or the US government, as is revealed by the contractor in his book.

The petitioner has nominated former ISI director general Ahmad Shuja Pasha, former army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, former interior minister Rehman Malik and secretaries of the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Defence as respondents.

He says Davis, ‘an American terrorist’, shot dead two persons, Faizan Haider and Faheem Shamshad, at Qartaba Chowk in Lahore and an American consulate’s driver hit another bike rider, Ubadur Rehman, killing him on the spot while driving rashly on one-way road.

He claims that the federal government and other respondents “rescued the culprit and manoeuvered to save his life by paying blood money to the legal heirs of the deceased in an unlawful manner,” adding that the reconciliation deals are not supposed to be ‘enforced’.

The petitioner says Shamshad’s wife, Shumaila Faheem, was under tremendous stress that the US and Pakistan were quietly negotiating a deal to get her husband’s killer released from prison.

“She was so disappointed by the national institutions and administration of justice that she committed suicide,” he says. “The responsibility of her death falls on the respondents who are liable for her death.”

In case of forgiveness by the legal heirs, he submits, the convict has to pay the blood money but Davis has exposed in his recent book ‘The Contractor’ the alleged role of the ISI’s former chief in quashing the murder trial by paying money.

From the contents of the book, he says, it is clear that initially the authorities tried to grant Davis diplomatic immunity but later they manoeuvered to get his release under the law of the land by forcing the legal heirs to accept Diyat, or blood money, and offer forgiveness to the killer.

In his book, Davis has alleged that the then ISI chief, the then CIA director Leon Panetta and Pakistan’s political leadership, as well as the judiciary, assisted in his acquittal, says the petitioner.

He claims that the US has finally confessed that Davis was a CIA operative on a spying mission. He was a former member of the Special Forces and was working for Xe Worldwide, commonly known as Blackwater.

Asad says Davis entry into Pakistan and committing murder was due to a foreign policy prejudicial to the security, integrity and sovereignty of Pakistan on account of granting over 3,000 visas without clearance from the intelligence agencies and allowing construction of a huge building for US Embassy in Islamabad.

Raymond Davis accuses Pakistani politicians of lying to nation

“Asif Zardari, the then president, Yousaf Raza Gilani, the prime minister, and interior minister Rehman Malik are responsible for it,” he states, adding: “The policy of secrecy on highly sensitive and crucial issues must end.”

The petitioner has requested the court to call for complete record of the case and determine who made the payment and other expenses. “The responsible persons committing the illegal act be dealt with in accordance with law in view of the findings. Rehman Malik and others responsible for granting visas without clearance be dealt with in accordance with law,” he demands.

Source: The Express Tribune