Undeterred by US pressure, the Pakistani Police is continuing to do their job–inspect all vehicles for arms and papers. In one of the most egregious events of its kind, certain foreginers did not want to show their papers or allow their vehicles to be searched for arms. Unfortunately the “guest government” of Mr. Zardari is compliant enough to intervene on behalf of the “Gora Sahibs” –and not take the side of the Law Enforcement authorities. This hooliganism is headed in the wrong direction.
LAHORE: Security agencies on Saturday intercepted two more vehicles of US Consulate in two different localities of the provincial metropolis.
However, police claim the security personnel let the foreigners go only after a thorough search of the vehicles and being furnished with their identification by the consulate.
In the first incident, a land cruiser was intercepted by the police at a picket near Shimla Hill for bearing suspicious registration number.
The occupants of the vehicle reportedly offered resistance when the police sought their identification as well as registration book of the vehicle.
In the meantime, a security squad of the US Consulate also arrived at the spot and managed release of the vehicle and those riding it, sources said.
The other vehicle, also a land cruiser, was stopped by security personnel and military police at Sherpao Bridge, Cantonment, also carrying foreign ‘diplomats’.
Police sources said the vehicle had a fake registration number of Karachi. However, US Consulate officials again intervened and took the vehicle and its occupants with them, without letting the security personnel search them, they added.
Last week, the citizens of Lahore got a direct dose of lawlessness being perpetrated by the American diplomatic mission in Pakistan. In two separate incidents, its Lahore consulate sent out the clear message that those declared as its staff members were above the law. Similar incidents had been reported from Islamabad and Peshawar earlier, where the American embassy or consulate had come to the rescue of individuals that were caught flouting the law of the land. While this badmash attitude is expected from the Americans considering what they are doing all over the world, the most unfortunate aspect of these incidents is the abject subservience of the governments in Lahore and Islamabad.
The message being sent out to the law-enforcing agencies is that anyone white should be allowed immunity from any scrutiny and allowed to whiz through nakas: at best a verbal declaration of being an American diplomat, arrogantly barked out from the vehicle’s tinted-glass window, rolled down an inch, should be enough. The police should not ask any questions or demand any documents for the vehicle even if it does not have a diplomatic number plate. It should not ask those riding these vehicles to prove their identity. The police should just see the white colour of the claimant’s skin and believe him. The kind of immunity the Americans seem to be pushing for is extremely dangerous for Pakistani citizens and absolutely unacceptable.
What has been reported about incidents of American badmashi in our cities is alarming. Individuals eventually claimed as diplomatic staff have been found travelling in vehicles with fake number plates, carrying arms without licenses and breaking nakas. They usually have no documents to prove their identity, have been found photographing sensitive locations on some occasions and have refused to so much as roll down their tinted-glass windows on others. The common factor in all these incidents is that they have always gotten away with such unlawful activity through the intervention of the American embassy or consulates and high-ups in our very own government.
The more alarming aspect of these incidents is that such incidents continue unabated. One would have expected that the government and the American mission would work towards some basic understanding about the movement of American diplomatic staff in order to stop such incidents. But no effort has been made to come to some agreement for ensuring that the concept of diplomatic immunity is not abused.
It is surprising that despite such embarrassing situations, the American mission has not advised its staff to carry basic documents like vehicle registration and those proving their identity while moving about in a country that is on high alert. The diplomatic staff has not been asked to cooperate with the police. After all, as most citizens of Lahore and Islamabad, who go through such nakas every day, would vouch, the police does not unnecessarily detain people and the whole process of scrutiny, if stopped, does not take more than a minute. But the American mission seems to be out to make a point.
The fact that the staff at the American mission has continued to make the same mistakes only proves that it is being done by design. The idea is to keep pushing until the new law of the jungle is established. What they are essentially demanding is a licence to break any law that they wish. And if the government does not put an end to this lawlessness, it would practically amount to giving the same licence to anyone white who claims to be an American diplomat. Remember, those stopped by the police refuse to prove their identities.
If one looks at the way the US throws its weight around all over the world, refusing to follow any rules, this behaviour is not surprising. Whether it is nuclear proliferation or disarmament, the Kyoto Treaty or dumping of toxic waste in developing countries and their seas, the US does not like being subjected to any kind of discipline. It continues to flout international treaties and protocols in the name of its national and commercial interests. It considers it its right to invade countries on flimsy pretexts and threaten others. Drunk on its debatable status as the sole superpower, it (US) roams the globe as a local badmash walks the streets of a mohalla under his control. That this global badmash has come to town is not a comforting thought.
The most alarming aspect of these incidents is the complicity of the Pakistan as well as the Punjab governments. Those in charge have acted like spineless stooges; as if they were elected by the people of Pakistan not to govern it in their interest but to follow illegal orders from the American embassy or consulates like personal domestic servants. The recent incidents in Lahore and how the PML-N administration has handled them, has exposed the hollowness of its rhetoric about being patriots who would never sell-out on national interests.
The PML-N has persistently insinuated that the PPP government at the centre was doing the American bidding while their party was truly nationalistic. They are getting a lot of flak for their hypocrisy now.
Incensed as the citizens are over the recent incidents, they blame the governments (federal and provincial) for them, and the reactions vary. There are those who are despondent and say that nothing better could be expected from these governments that are acting like paid servants of the US. Some people are more positive and hope to pressurise the governments into acting against such illegalities. Some friends are a bit puzzled at the silence of the independent judiciary. Why hasn’t the Supreme Court taken a suo moto notice of this matter of extreme public importance? They ask. After all, it is something that threatens the life and liberty of Pakistan’s citizens. Or for that matter, why hasn’t some group from the awakened civil society or even one of the political parties, fiercely opposed to the expanding American presence in Pakistan, taken the matter to the court?
The writer is a freelance columnist. Niaz Jalees. The Nation
