THE CONTRACTOR BY RAYMOND DAVIS

                                                           REVIEW                                     26.10.17

 

 

Way back in 2011 everybody came to know about Raymond Davis when across the world news was flashed in almost all the newspapers about a American who shot dead two people in Lahore. The TV channels  of Pakistan were bursting with all kind of conspiracy theories. Pakistanis were simmering with anger that their nation was being targeted by the brute Americans because they were Muslims. The terrorist organisations in Pakistan were seeking death for all Americans. Raymond was arrested for murder and there was a strong public opinion that he be hanged. The Government of Pakistan was in a quandary. The Americans started to apply heat on them. The Americans threatened that they would block all funds running into billions incase their citizen was harmed in addition to punishing them militarily. Then after a few months news emerged that Raymond was released and flown back to the US. So what happened ? Everthing remained in wraps. After nearly 6 years the cover from the mystery was lifted when Raymond Davis wrote this book and related the inside story about what actually happened.

 

On 27.1.11 Raymond was driving his SUV in Lahore. He never disclosed where he was going.

As he reached the busy Mozang chowk he noticed two men riding on a motorcycle just in front of his SUV. Suddenly the person back riding turned and whipped out a gun and aimed at Raymond. He perhaps was not aware that the CIA man was a well trained shooter. In a flash Raymond pulled his Glock 17 and fired several shots. The bullets travelled through the wind shield leaving a hole and hit precisely the man aiming at him. He was killed instantly. The motorbike skidded. Another bullet hit the rider and he also collapsed. Raymond was later arrested in the market and then handed over to the ISI the dreaded intelligence wing of the Pakistan military. Later it was known that the assassins name were Haider and Faheem. They were from the LeT a known terrorist organisation whose Chief is Hafeez Sayeed. The same terrorist organization which targets India and is part of Pakistan security establishment. However Pakistan never accepted that these two assassins belonged to the LeT.

The entire episode exposed the sham judiciary system of Pakistan, the hand of ISI in every institution, Pakistan shameful dependency on a foreign country, the powerful hold of terrorist organisations on the Govt and public opinion.

The book draws attention to the following issues relating to Pakistan :

1. Mr Butt was the public prosecutor. Raymond states that the first time he was produced in the court the prosecutor told the judge that “Your honor, Mr. Davis shot two armed men who tried to shoot him.milliseconds away from doing just that."

The second time he told “Your honor, Mr. Davis shot two armed men, but they meant him no harm."

The third time he claimed that the two men David shot were ISI agent.

The fourth time Butt claimed that the two men on the motorcycle didn’t even have guns.  

So what kind of court proceedings is this? Why the Judges just keep quiet and does not question the prosecution in cases relating to terrorists? Their conduct clearly shows that as Judges they are least bothered to discharge their duties honestly to dispense justice. The few who perform their duties have to run away from Pakistan. Remember the case of Mumtaz Qadri. The judge Pervez Ali Shah who pronounced the death sentence fled the country. The judiciary system of Pakistan is a junk show. Judges are threatened and they encourage delaying tactics. Even dreaded terrorists like Lakhvi, Hafeez Sayeed, Masood Azhar could not be convicted and are roaming free. No nation or citizen is safe where such a tattered form of judiciary exist.

2. Pakistan heavy dependency on the US for funds have made it a slave state. Sort of servant status who is ready to do anything provided he is compensated. The total aid to Pakistan has crossed $80 billion. A staggering amount. The worrying part is that most of this has never been utilised for the purpose for which it was given. A major part of the billions were siphoned off. Some went into the pockets of the Generals and some to raise and support the terrorist organisations. The US never seriously demanded a explanation for these fraudulent acts. Now Pakistan has become so dependent upon these generous dole outs that it can even sell its self respect.

3. Jinnah is the Father of the Nation of this Islamic state. However Jinnah's was just opposite to what a true Muslim should be. Jinnah wore hand-tailored suits and silk ties. He drove imported cars. He never wore a beard. He drank whiskey. He ate pork. He mainly spoke English. He married a non-Muslim. Apart from this Jinnah ideology was communal. He divided India on the basis of religion in which one million were killed and 20 million were displaced. Such a person has no right to be respected  and there you make him Father of the Nation !

4.The Islamization of Pakistan further took it into the dark ages. The book describes

"During his eleven-year reign, Zia succeeded in changing life in Pakistan from the ground up. He used government funds to build thousands of madrassas, religious schools that teach an austere form of Islam and often promote jihad. Books that were considered un-Islamic were heavily edited or removed from libraries. Western culture was vilified. The national television network PTV replaced music videos with patriotic songs. Theaters that showed Western films were shut down. Women were ordered to cover their heads while in public, restricted from attending school or playing sports, and saw their value in the eyes of the law literally reduced to a fraction of a man’s. And every Muslim adult was required to pay zakat, giving a small percentage of his wealth to his community’s poor each year" A sort of Talibisation.

It is these thousands of Madrassas which are factories producing extremists on a daily basis endangering the lives of people not only in Pakistan but all over the world. Baitullah Mehsud the creator of TTP also came out from one of these radical Madrassas.

5.The entire legal system was changed by Zia.

" Zia created the Federal Shariat Court and the Shariat Appellate Bench of the Supreme Court and empowered them to decide cases based on the teachings of the Koran. Overseen exclusively by Muslim judges, these courts could review any existing law for its conformity with the injunctions of Islam and invalidate those that didn’t pass muster."

Murder laws were finally modified and the Qisas and Diyat Ordinance, which required murders to be tried under Sharia law, was adopted."

So today as matter stands the legal system of Pakistan instead of being in line with modern times has been shifted to medieval times. In such a situation a alleged victim can never expect a fair trial when the entire system is heavily wrapped in a religious fervour. Adding to this is the blasphemy law which can be applied any time to victimize Non Muslims.

6. The hand of the all powerful ISI even controls the Judges. Specially in terrorist related cases the Judge trying the case has to pronounce judgments as per the instruction of the ISI. Davis describes his final hearing in the court as under

"One of the few people allowed to stay behind was General Pasha, who’d been continually texting Ambassador Munter, updating him about the court proceedings. I imagine that at least one of his texts described the entrance of a man in a suit, whom I recognized but whose name I couldn’t recall. As soon as this man entered the courtroom, the room went silent. No one spoke a word. If a cell phone rang, the person to whom it belonged got up and walked outside to answer it. The only thing you could hear was the ceiling fan. The response this man’s presence got was strange but also oddly familiar.

Carmela and my team of attorneys were sitting directly in front of the cage, and I leaned forward, got Paul’s attention, and pointed to the man in the suit. “Who is that guy?”

“Him? He’s an ISI colonel. Why?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I thought so. He questioned me at the police station in Cantonment the day of the incident. I figured he was ISI. Why’s he here?”

“He’s a fixer.”

What else is required to prove that Pakistani Courts are Kangaroo courts. The ISI man talks to the Judge then changes the Court to Sharia court. Under the Sharia law a murderer can be tried under Diyat and so Raymond was tried under it .

6. In all civilized society a murderer is tried for murder and given punishment. In Pakistan a murderer  can get away by paying money to relatives of the murdered man. Isn't it strange? This is called blood money and is allowed under Diyat of Sharia laws. Life is so cheap in Pakistan. Almost all honor killings and terrorists escape punishment through this Diyat route.

Under pressure from the US the Pakistan Government took this face saving route to free Raymond and instructed ISI to implement it. However this requires consent of all the relatives and the ISI ensured this on gun point. Each relative was paid $130,000 each for a total of $2,340,000, the largest amount of blood money ever awarded in Pakistan.

The origin of this hefty amount paid were never disclosed.

“The United States did not pay any compensation,” Clinton reiterated.

Technically, what she said was true. According to the New York Times, ISI paid the money, and the US government later reimbursed the Pakistani government.

This book exposes the jungle raj which is prevails in Pakistan.

Do read it to get a idea of how Pakistan is a sinking country and how the terrorists rule there with impunity.

ASHOK KUMAR