WASHINGTON:
Husain Haqqani, former Pakistan ambassador to the United States, has castigated US prosecutor
Preet Bharara and state department officials who signed off on the arrest of
Devyani Khobragade for failing to be sensitive to the international dimension of an alleged domestic crime. "The arrest and mistreatment of an Indian consul in New York is particularly galling considering how American diplomats are extended considerations over and beyond the law in most countries," Haqqani wrote in The Daily Beast.
Describing Khobragade's arrest for allegedly paying her maid less than the amount stated on the maid's employment visa, Haqqani said that Bharara had displayed an "over-exuberance straight out of an episode of Law and Order". The diplomatic tiff was neither about rule of law nor about diplomatic immunity, he said, but about courtesy for representatives of foreign governments.
During his tenure as ambassador, Haqqani recalled how he was at the centre of a similar but much worse row in January 2011 when a US citizen named Raymond Davis killed two men in a crowded street in Lahore. "The US claimed that Davis carried a diplomatic passport and therefore enjoyed diplomatic immunity. Pakistan's Foreign Office found that Davis' name had been included on the list of diplomats serving in Pakistan only after he had committed the murders, which did not extend him immunity under the Vienna Convention," he states, revealing that Davis' job description as adviser to the US consulate in Lahore entitled him to consular and not full diplomatic immunity.
Despite that, Haqqani claims his government ensured Davis was treated with courtesy. "He was not subjected to a strip search," says the former ambassador, adding that after it was revealed that Davis was a CIA contractor, special security arrangements were made for him in prison. "The Pakistani government avoided embarrassing President Obama, who had been misled into publicly insisting on Davis' diplomatic status," Haqqani said.
Davis was eventually freed after his lawyers reached a financial settlement with the victims' families. Ironically, it was John Kerry - US secretary of state who has expressed "regret" about Khobragade's case - who was sent to Pakistan to smooth things over and "temper the public anger over the prospect of an accused murderer being set free".
"I was as outraged as anyone else over the fact that a hot-headed individual had killed two people in a crowded market without any identifiable threat to his life. We treated the Raymond Davis affair as a matter affecting relations between Pakistan and the United States, and not merely as the crime it was," said Haqqani, who believes "the ends of justice" would not have been compromised had Khobragade been shown the same courtesy. "American law enforcers need to be mindful of these global realities before setting off another storm while arresting a foreign diplomat or consular agent," he stated.
US diplomats are given considerations over and beyond the law: Husain Haqqani - The Times of India
