Raymond Davis the movie

We all love watching hollywood action movies in which our american heroes bravely drift cars too fast too furious whilst shooting expendable bullets in their mission impossibles. Little did we think then how these glorified heroes are actually violating many laws and more often then not have the biggest superpower in the world to support their crazy antics. Today we have such a trigger happy fellow amongst us and for many hollywood movie buffs abroad we are the villians.

In this movie major figures in the politics of Pakistan like Shah Mahmood Qureshi lost their status in the government and caused a massive rift in the foriegn policy due to just one character.When it comes to figures like Raymond Davis little can be said because what we know is scant. Let's see what we do know in the first place about this 36 year old gunslinger. We know that he was driving through the streets of Lahore and unloaded a fully loaded Glock through the windshield on two Pakistani men riding on a motorbike. He ran from the incident and was arrested. To make matters worse a Batmobile (read american consulate SUV) sped to rescue this vigilanti and knocked to death another Pakistani man and disappeared. 

We also know that he gets quite disturbed by the azan during the fajr hours and enjoys food from a well known chinese eatery in jail. What we dont know yet however is this man's real name, perhaps even his age, his job, his diplomatic status, any possible superhuman ability and well just about everything else is shourded in a blanket of mystery. The assialants too were for some unknown reasons perhaps carrying guns, stolen mobile phones and as rumours have it even a wad of US dollars.

The settings are classic for the average action movie director but this dies make a lawyers job difficult doesn't it?

So our mystery man claims that he acted in self defense and from sniper aims, it appears that he had experience in self defense. The Pakistan Penal Code allows the plea of self defense under sections 96, 97 and 100 but ofcourse one has to prove that they had a real threat to their lives first.

Given that the evidence of threat to life is not sufficient there starts a whole charade of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1971 which applies applies to diplomats. But the problem here is that we dont know anything about Davis so does the Convention apply? The US embassy quickly granted him backdated documents makes him a member of the embassy's technical and administrative staff so that he qualifies for section 37(2) of the same Convention. The matter is now to be decided by the ministry of foriegn affairs of Pakistan which is carefully monitoring the pulse and tempratures of public and the american embassy. The tempratures abroad have risen considerably with the surprise visit from Kerry and a call from Obama.The interior minister of Pakistan with its vast resources is already fully in co-operation with the US and is willing to help out when and where needed. For some unknown reasons the Ministry of Information is also issuing statements even though the relevent ministry involved has not made a decision yet.

 So here we have a man who is possibly a member of a dark and fluid private security firm very much like the Justice League in comics. We know that such firms have been recipients of massive contracts and have stretched their operations through out the region. We know from the experiences of Iraq that they can be quite lethal and we know that International Law does not apply to private firms or their members and domestic laws will be used to deal with them. So to protect him there is a need to agree that he was infact a technical and administrative officer and therefore falls into the ambit of the Vienna Convention.

 Would there then be a legal recourse? Apart from the far fetched idea that the US could if they wanted waive the immunity under article 32 of the Convention there are three legal cards Pakistan still has left.

Firstly as per law it is for Pakistan to decide if Davis does indeed enjoy such diplomatic immunity. The incorporation of these international treaties into the pakistani legislations was done with slight amendments affording Pakistan the decision making power.

Secondly there is Article 41 of the same Convention that states that it is a duty of a diplomat to respect the laws and regulations of the recieving state. That they have a duty not to interfere with the functioning of the host state. Perhaps the time has come for Pakistan to ask "Come on Davis, tell us what you were really doing here?"

Thirdly and most importantly Pakistan is also a signatory to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations 1963 which came two years after the above mentioned Convention and supercedes it. Article 41 of which states that "Consular officers shall not be liable to arrest or detention pending trial, except in the case of a grave crime and pursuant to a decision by the competent judicial authority".

One can presume safely that the crime committed was indeed grave and the present courts are indeed competent judicial authorities. But the 1963 convention is dependent on Davis claiming to be a Consular officer. If he claims to be a diplomat under the 1961 Convention he is in violation of the article 41 again by carrying arms specifically when the interior ministry has issued clear regulations disallowing any diplomat from carrying arms.

One can only state here that the law is not supportive of Raymond but I believe that movie fans abroad are at the edge of their seats and biting their nails as they see a couple of rambo-esque figures mount a Chinook helicopter to rescue their brother Raymond. They say the movie will be a blockbuster.