Daily Times

The Raymond Davis saga continues and along with it so do the flurry of reports and speculations. It is now coming to light that Davis’s background and vocational capacity are not as straightforward and innocent as the US would have initially had us believe. Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has stated that Davis was indeed working for the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), a claim that has not been refuted by US officials who say that while working on a contractual basis with the CIA, Davis was not a covert operative. The US officials who refuse to be named say that Davis was a CIA-employed bodyguard for US Embassy staff and visiting dignitaries. There are still other reports that claim Davis was actually a spy and was even working closely with the much-hated militant group the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), whilst other speculations say that the American gunslinger is a security contractor. Suspicions run deep in this murky swamp that has become the Raymond Davis affair.

However, one thing is clear: whoever Raymond Davis is and whatever he was doing on Pakistani soil, he is being claimed by the US as a serving diplomat who enjoys complete diplomatic immunity. The whole sordid affair is tragic and is proving to be detrimental to Pak-US relations. While we can badmouth the US for its trigger-happy approach to Pakistan, we cannot forget that it was Pakistan and its unique power plays — Musharraf’s policies of appeasement — that allowed CIA agents free licence to roam around in Pakistan and do as they please. The common man is incensed that Davis could very well be allowed to get off scot-free after killing two Pakistani citizens. The public backlash may be high pitched but, so far, it seems as if it might not attain the sound and fury of the blasphemy issue that has recently fizzled out. The US backlash on the other hand, may be a very real breakdown of our economic system without their funding.

In such a ‘damned if you do and damned if you don’t’ scenario, there seems just one option left for the hapless Pakistan government: to take Senator John Kerry up on his offer of handing Davis over after which he will be subject to criminal investigations in the US. Right now, it may seem like Pakistan will be at the losing end in such a concession but the long-term repercussions of any other course could be much, much worse. *