Former Director General Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), Lt. Gen. (retired) Ahmed Shuja Pasha is reported to have sent text messages to the U.S. Ambassador Cameron Munter as the Raymond Davis drama was unfolding in a court.
According to reports filed by Dunyanews.tv and the reportersdairy.com web site, at least two sources, one of them now a retired two-star general of the Pakistan Army, said that revelations contained in Mark Mazetti's book, "The Way of the Knife" regarding Lt.Gen. (retired) Pasha "being personally present in the court premises to oversee the release of Raymond Davis were true."
"General Pasha sat in the back of the courtroom, his cellphone out. He began sending out a stream of nervous text messages to Ambassador Munter, updating him about the court proceedings," wrote Mark Mazetti shedding light on how the then DG ISI personally ensured freedom from the Court for the US spy.
According to the Dunyanews.tv and reportersdairy.com, the revelations raise questions about the independence of the judiciary, and whether it acted under pressure to release Raymond Davis on March 16, 2011.
Former military officials and diplomats aware of the saga have been quoted as saying that Lt. Gen. Pasha took the decision to ensure the release of Davis despite knowledge of the fact that he was working against the ISI and trying to expose the spy agencies alleged links with militant organisations.
Dunyanews.tv states that it is yet to be confirmed whether Lt.Gen.Pasha was acting under orders of the Army Chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani or getting cookie points from the Americans for reasons which could range from personal to others.
Authorities in Pakistan are silent about Lt.Gen.Pasha being authorised to be personally present in the court premises, to update the US ambassador through text messages, or it was his own initiative.
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Those privy of intelligence matters were of the opinion that Pasha's personal presence in the court premises demeaned the office of the Director General Inter Services Intelligence agency, as this task could have been given to a major or a colonel.
According to Mark Mazettis's book, Americans were confident that Lt.Gen.Pasha would deliver.
What is emerging is that Lt.Gen. Pasha did not take action under the relevant laws, but acted to the contrary to get U.S. spy Davis released through an act of omission, an act punishable under relevant military and civilian laws.
Apprehensions that Raymond Davis would be released had prompted the widow of one of the deceased to commit suicide a month earlier. However, her dying death declaration had revealed what is now beginning to unfold.
Davis was acquitted when relatives of Faizan Haider and Mohammad Faheem pardoned him in court after taking blood money.
How the pardon was secured is credited to Lt General Pasha in some details in the book.
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