Pakistan relentless on US official’s arrest, trial
By IANSSunday, January 30, 2011
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan’s Foreign Office and the Punjab provincial government have refused to budge from their position, despite US pressure, on the issue of the arrest of a US official, held for killing three people in Lahore.
The US authorities are citing diplomatic immunity for the arrested US official.
US ambassador Cameron Munter called former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to intervene for the release of accused Ramond Davis, the Daily Jang reported Sunday.
“Nawaz, head of the PML-N that is ruling Punjab with his younger brother as the chief minister, refused to entertain the request,” the paper said.
“The matter is now in [the] court and all principles of justice will be observed,” he was quoted as telling the US envoy.
Earlier, Sharif also chaired a meeting where he was briefed about the developments in the case and directed the officers concerned not to bow to any pressure.
Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said: “Vienna Convention does not give any right to a diplomat to shoot out in another country like this. If the US consulate does not cooperate with us for handing over the second car and driver, we’ll seek an arrest warrant from the court.”
Ramond was arrested Thursday after he shot down two people at a busy Lahore road with an automatic weapon he carried. A vehicle escorting him crushed a man to death on its way to the US consulate building.
Ramond has been remanded to police custody where he has claimed that he acted in self-defence.
The US embassy in Islamabad has claimed diplomatic immunity for Davis and his immediate release from what it believes “is unlawful detention by Pakistani authorities”.
Pakistan’s Foreign Office, however, has rejected the plea.
“Ramond is not a diplomat and does not enjoy diplomatic immunity. Otherwise, the US officials would not have to even ask for it,” a Foreign Office spokesman was quoted as saying in the media Sunday.
Meanwhile, the religio-political parties have started rallying around to take the case to its logical end, drawing its comparisons with Aafia Siddiqui case in the US.
Aafia is a Pakistani scientist, who was arrested on charges of having links with Al-Qaeda and has been sentenced by a New York court on charges of shooting US marines at Bargram airbase in Afghanistan.
–Indo Asian News Service
