Pak Parliament needs to get to bottom of Raymond Davis case: FM Asif

Pakistan Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif has called on parliament to decide if an inquiry is to be conducted to ascertain who compromised the dignity and honour of the country by agreeing to give blood money to the heirs of three people killed by United States Central Intelligence Agency contractor Raymond Davis in Lahore in 2011.

"God knows from which account the amount had been paid," the Dawn quoted Asif, as saying while responding to a calling-attention notice in the Senate about revelations made by Davis in his book "The Contractor".

Asif said he would support an investigation into the release of Davis if parliament asked for it. He termed the whole incident a matter of embarrassment for the entire nation, as individuals and not institutions appeared to have played a role in freeing Davis.

The sensitive revelations made by Raymond Davis raise questions about the state institutions, the military, the courts and the government and of course the then president of Pakistan," Senator Hafiz Hamdullah said.

He said Davis had reveled in his book how the then US vice president John Kerry, president Asif Ali Zardari, ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani, Inter-Services Intelligence chief Lt Gen Ahmad Shuja Pasha and a court had played a role in his release.

Hamdullah said no clarification has been given so far by those who have been exposed in the book.

Raymond Davis is a former United States Army soldier, private security firm employee, and contractor with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

On January 27, 2011, Davis killed three armed men in Lahore, Pakistan.

The U.S. government argued that he was protected by diplomatic immunity, but Davis was jailed and criminally charged by Pakistani authorities with double murder and Malik was then the interior minister in 2011 when Davis was acquitted of shooting two people in Lahore.

Pakistan freed the CIA contractor after a deal was sealed to pay $2.34 million in "blood money" to the men's families.