Opinion Diplomatic row

Daily Times reported on February 14: “Islamabad is looking forward to the rescheduling of the trilateral meeting as soon as possible…Foreign Ministry spokesman,Abdul Basit said… ‘We hope one person would not drive Pakistan-US relations and we hope we would not be losing sight of the strategic imperative of our relations’.” The US did not cite Davis’s detention as the reason for stalling the event. The story also quoted US State Department spokesman,P.J. Crowley: “(The) US hopes to reschedule the meeting soon.”

Pakistan,perhaps,is in a mood for some quid pro quo,reported Daily Times: “The US president has demanded the release of… Davis while the Pakistani government wants the release of Dr Aafia Siddiqui in return,law minister Babar Awan said.”

Shah Mehmood Qureshi,who lost the portfolio of foreign minister in last week’s cabinet reshuffle,made a couple of statements about Davis’s diplomatic status,which created an uproar both within his party,the PPP and the media. The PPP appears to have disowned him after he insisted Davis didn’t enjoy diplomatic immunity. However,another theory regarding his ouster also floats: that he refused to accept a new portfolio in protest against the recently-issued arrest warrants against Pervez Musharraf. The News reported on February 14: “Several PPP leaders… assailed former foreign minister Qureshi for issuing statements on Davis … Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Firdous Ashiq Awan linked the refusal of Qureshi to join the cabinet to the arrest warrants issued against Musharraf… Firdous said Qureshi’s statements about Davis’s immunity would create a bad environment in the country… ‘Whatever verdict is given by the court… the government will accept it,’ she added. The minister said such issues could be debated in party meetings,but not in the media. ‘Shah Mehmood Qureshi had not shown his concerns over… Davis when he was foreign minister…’ Sindh Law Minister Ayaz Soomro said Qureshi wanted to save the former president (Musharraf) from arrest.”

Senator John Kerry,chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and an experienced Pakistan hand,was commissioned for the task of resolving the crisis by the US administration. He flew to Lahore and made no bones about saying that Pakistan’s fortunes now lay in the hands of his colleagues in Congress. The News quoted Kerry on February 16: “some… things are beyond my control. Two or three members of Congress,as you know,have put resolutions to cut off aid. And every country has independent souls… Secretary Clinton and I made efforts and we have been able to get everybody calmed down. But I cannot predict what someone is going to do if we do not have (a) happy or sensible way out…” He also sought to settle the debate over Davis’s diplomatic status: “While terming… Davis an administrative diplomatic employee working with the US embassy in Pakistan,Senator Kerry said diplomats working with the embassy under the Vienna Convention 1961 automatically enjoyed immunity and that was a ‘big bottomline’.” Soon after,a Daily Times report stated the foreign ministry wrote to the interior ministry saying “Davis was a diplomat who enjoyed immunity under the Vienna Convention.”

A report in The Express Tribune on February 18,however,differed : “Davis has been sent on a 14-day judicial remand,while the government has sought three weeks-time to file a reply on his immunity… the Punjab government said… contrary to US claims,Davis does not have diplomatic immunity.”

Towards justice

Dawn reported on February 14 that Rawalpindi’s Anti-Terrorism Court indicted Salman Taseer’s assasin,Malik Mumtaz Qadri with terrorism and murder. Qadri pleaded not guilty to murder,his legal team said,adding he denied it was murder as he had acted on the directives of the Quran and the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed “regarding an apostate”.

Year of Faiz

This year marks the birth centenary of renowned poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz. The government of Pakistan has declared the year 2011 as “the year of Faiz”,reported Daily Times on February 15. “Programmes in no fewer than 109 cities of the world were simultaneously taking place to commemorate his birth,”

reported Dawn.