The Supreme Court’s acceptance of the appeal of Ahmad Omar Shaikh and the other convicts of the Daniel Pearl kidnapping-cum-murder may have been inevitable in law, but it also created a bad impression of Pakistan in the USA, and was the first impression the incoming Biden Administration got of Pakistan. There was some talk of fresh evidence, but though the Sindh government had preferred an appeal against the Sind High Court decision overturning Mr Shaikh’s conviction, it did not produce it. The Supreme Court had to decide according to the evidence before it. The USA now will have to deal with the impression, which will be given as much hype as possible by forces hostile to Pakistan, that the Pakistani state, or at best some of its actors, is doing its best to protect terrorists who committed such acts as Mr Pearl’s brutal beheading.
As if that was not enough, the Pakistani attitude towards the Afghan peace process has created a disturbance in the relationship. The Biden Administration wants to put the peace agreement with the Taliban on hold, especially in view of the fact that the USA had agreed to it in a rush to get a troop withdrawal by the election, which as a matter of fact, could not happen. The key Taliban action that was supposed to happen so that the accord would move forward, was supposed to be a cessation of violence. That has not happened, which has served to highlight the fact that one of the main parts of the agreement, the intra-Afghan talks, did not have the consent of the Afghan government. The question of its post-withdrawal future is again being raised.
If the Biden Administration sees the US-Taliban peace agreement as flawed, as it seems to be doing, it will not see Pakistan as being particularly helpful. The Pearl case decision is no help, for it merely reinforces impressions among people who have been out of office for at least four years, that Pakistan is a hive of terrorism, and its government is bent on supporting them. The possibility has been raised of Mr Shaikh’s extradition to the USA. Even if it took place, the question of Pakistan’s judicial capacity would still arise.
