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LAST summer in Lahore, I had a little party at my house for the final of the football World Cup. It was a pretty relaxed affair, maybe 20 people, cushions on the TV room floor, pizza on the dining room table. Some of my friends brought friends of their own.
One was an American man. He was wearing a light jacket. After he left, my wife told me he was also wearing a gun. Now, I’m open to my friends bringing their friends to my house. But I’m not very accepting of a friend bringing a gun — or, worse, bringing a complete stranger with a gun. Yet that’s what happened, and it left me angry and disturbed.
Like everyone else I knew, I’d heard the stories about large numbers of armed Americans in Lahore, staying at such-and-such hotels, for example, or working out at such-and-such gyms. Maybe I became more sensitive to their presence after the incident at my house, but suddenly I began to see them all around town. To be precise, I didn’t know if the men I was seeing were armed. But they looked like Americans, and they didn’t look like rock guitarists or maths teachers or irrigation specialists or heart surgeons. They looked, to my unschooled eye, like what I’d expect trained killers to look like.
(Of course it was possible that groups of non-violent, hard-faced, physically fit, all-male Swedish and Dutch and Spanish tourist groups with a niche interest not in ancient outdoor monuments but in the interiors of tacky hotels had descended on Lahore, but I thought this unlikely.)
Then, last month, in broad daylight on a main Lahore road, one such man, Raymond Davis, shot dead two Pakistani citizens with his Glock, and a US consular car sent to retrieve him killed another Pakistani citizen while speeding the wrong way down a street. Davis is being held by the Pakistani police, the US government is demanding that he be released and threatening to withhold aid to Pakistan if he is not, and the wife of one of the Pakistani men killed has committed suicide saying lucidly from her deathbed that her reason for doing so is that she does not expect Davis will be punished for his actions.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan government has tied itself up in obfuscatory knots over what should be the straightforward issue of whether Davis has diplomatic immunity, and therefore whether he can be tried in Pakistan.
So what is going on? Who is Raymond Davis, and what are people like him doing in Pakistan? I’ve read articles likening him to Rambo and RoboCop. But I believe another Hollywood film franchise metaphor is more apt. Predator.
The Raymond Davis affair has brought home what should have been obvious to us Pakistanis for a long time. Pakistan has become a game preserve, a place where deadly creatures are nurtured, and where hunters pay for the chance to kill them.
Here in the game preserve, money flows to the hunt. Pakistani extremists are funded, armed and trained. And American hunters, whether far away at the remote controls of Predator drones or on the ground in the form of men with the shooting skills of a Raymond Davis, operate under paid immunity. Want a blanket Tribal Area Hellfire missile licence? Well that might set you back the price of 18 new F-16s. An all-Lahore Glock licence to kill? Perhaps double-oh-seven billion in development aid.
But while the Pakistani population has until now grudgingly tolerated the notion of a game preserve limited to the Pak-Afghan border, the outcry over Raymond Davis has demonstrated that a game preserve encompassing the whole country strikes people as a different matter entirely.
Which puts both our governments in a bind. What are the warden-owners and hunter-consumers of a game preserve to do, after all, when the frogs and butterflies and trees and worms that make up the traumatised and hungry population of this land object to its current business model?
Because when I speak to my Pakistani friends the message I hear, though admittedly far from uniform, is nonetheless becoming increasingly clear. No more Pakistani extremists. No more American killers. And, if it comes to it, no more American aid either. We don’t want to live in a game preserve. We want to get on with our lives and build a future in peace for ourselves and our children.
The multi-billion dollar question is this: do the Pakistani and American governments — no, that term is too limited, focusing as it does mainly on our elected officials — do the Pakistani and American states have the capacity to listen?
If they do not, then the continued passivity of the long-neglected, inflation-gouged, and violence-subjected people of Pakistan is far from guaranteed. In the meantime, however, widespread reports that our country has produced a more-than-previously-estimated 100 nuclear warheads will surely increase the price of hunting permits.
The writer is the author of the novels Moth Smoke and The Reluctant Fundamentalist.
We in Pakistan quite simply do not recognize that we have been engaged in this Afghan war since 1989 and that has done havoc to our society. We were turned into religious, then fundamentalist and now nervous wrecks.
Returning from abroad periodically it was quite amazing how your near and dear ones behaved differently each time.
The fact that we did all these turns at the behest of Americans ,our closest allies though not friends, has made it more complex.
Strong words, but now give up your and your wife's foreign passports, and be come a fully-fledged Pakistanis. Wait, no? Okay, remain a total hypocrite and phony.
lesson learnt:
next time dont let the friends of your friends at your home, whom you dont know. and keep your family away from tehm, stay safe.
A well written article, in deed. But, I still don't understand: who is Davis, what is he doing in Pakistan, how many people live Davis are there, and what policy/strategy are they part of?
Insightful. Pakistanis really need to take heed……
I would loved to have seen the reaction in the US if a Pakistani spy/assassin's action resulted in the death of three ordinary americans.
well written article.Ex FM Qureshi is the first victim of this Davis fiasco as his statement confirmed that Davis does not hold a diplomatic visa, this was not appreciated by the presidency and he was asked to go home.Had such a crime been committed in the US by a Pakistani just imagine what would have happened.
Thank you for putting it simple and straight forward. And for those who think that drones hitting the tribal belt has nothing to do with them, it is a test. You can tolerate violation of your sovereignty there, you can then everywhere including cities, nuclear assets. You must call a spade a spade. Weakness shown on part or our leaders will hurt us in the long term. Law of the land must apply to extremist, terrorist, corrupt and murderers equally.
Why no one made any hue and cry about killings when that were carried out in other parts of Pakistan? Why all of a sudden life starts to look precious when this incident happened in Lahore?
This shows American double standards wbout complete disrespect of a countries soverignity. This has been done countless times, not to mention. If this man has committed what he is accused of on a business visa, he should be charged with a murder, tried and punished and remembe, no presedential pardone…I am surprised, I am not seeing any remarks in the newspapers from the political elite…
You took the words out of my mouth. Bravo!
Freedom comes at a cost. If the lives of Pakistani citizens is so worthless, that they can be gunned down in broad day light and the killer is said to have immunity. Immunity from what? How far does this immunity stretch? How little value is there to the due process of the law? This is now all political, the judicial process is being compromised. People in Pakistan must decide, it's time to cry freedom.
An Egyptian/Tunisian style revolution is due for Pakistan…when will the people wake up- no one can predict. But the chances of a non-violent revolt after the predator is released are high.
Pakistan is not like Iran, so the possibility of it turning into a theocracy are very low.
Pakistanis need to wake up and take charge of their homeland.
To Mohsin, The games preserve is to not have any rule of law in Pakistan. The game preserve is to never provide the security to the meek and the wretched masses. The game preserve is to always have begging bowl in the hand ..the game preserve is to keep electing the same corrupt people as your leaders and never stand up for the capable and deserving people to lead you to get out of the mess that you are in. Do you feel reluctant now to make those obvious comments?
One request to Pakistani Readers or fans. Please stop commenting how well the article is written. Witty or non-witty is very subjective comment. Please start commenting on the ideas. Most readers are awestruck by reading few lines written in English.
Well, this article is nice, but makes no sense because it does not bring into account on what would happen if we are not given American aid:
Our economy would collapse, we wont be able to service our debt.
How would we pay our armed forces personnel salaries?
How would we maintain our current untenable position that has been shoved down our throats viz a viz Afghanistan/ India?
How would our corrupt elite survive if US aid is withdrawn?
Like my Friend said…
"If you act like a doormat, You WILL be stepped On"
Excellent and enlightening. This article has expressed a much needed perspective. We all need to face what is really happening in our society. It comes back to economics – there is a potential market for everything.
Very Well said and very well written
I agree with you. We,as Pakistanis (or overseas Pakistanis, stop being beggars and also start resistance movements against the "predator" capitalists and the narrow-minded fundamentalists!
Mohsin's wife saw the gun..no body else..hummm…that is interesting…
Unable to figure out what the author wants to convey…his western life style….or wants to criticize west…?
Thank you for the excellent article. I wish the Pakistani public start showing the same kind of opposition to drone attacks.
Excellent piece which summarises eloquently what is going on and what the stakes are.
Very good write up. Excellent job.I think we Pakistanis are tired of this "Human Hunting Game", this has to be finished now. Who so ever is responsible for this, I beg to please leave us on our own.
And Rehman Malik must have denied presence of people like Raymond Davis in Pakistan at least a thousand times…
Excellent and witty. Predator is an apt metaphor.
The last time Americans acted in this arrogant and imperial manner they helped in the birth of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Pakistanis need to take heed……..
Excellent. Very well expressed and a true reflection of our Society's thinking! Thanks.