Islamabad:
A provincial court gave the Pakistani government three weeks on Thursday to decide whether the American official in custody for killing two Pakistanis has diplomatic immunity, a decision that amounts to a slap to the United States, the nation's biggest donor and an ally in the fight against terror.
The decision came a day after a whirlwind visit by Senator John Kerry who tried to find a quick resolution to the case which has severely damaged relations between the two countries and exposed the weakness of the pro-American government headed by President Asif Ali Zardari.
The public furor in Pakistan has revolved around why Raymond A. Davis, 36, arrested with a loaded Glock handgun and other security gear, was driving alone in an impoverished area of Lahore not usually frequented by diplomats. After Mr. Davis killed two motorcyclists who he says were trying to rob him, an official American car that tried to rescue him ran over another motorcyclist who later died. That car fled the scene.
In an argument before the court in Lahore, the city where Mr. Davis shot and killed the Pakistanis, the advocate general of Punjab Province, Khawaja Haris, said the authorities had filed a "double murder case" against Mr. Davis.
On the matter of diplomatic immunity, which the Obama administration insists on, the lawyer pointed to conflicting statements by the Americans on the status of Mr. Davis.
On January 27, the day of the shooting, the United States Consulate in Lahore issued a statement saying Mr. Davis was an employee of the consulate and the holder of a diplomatic passport.
Later, the American Embassy in Islamabad said Mr. Davis, a former Special Forces soldier, worked at the embassy and was employed as a "technical and administrative" official.
The application sent to the Pakistani Foreign Ministry in late 2009 for Mr. Davis's posting to Pakistan stated he would work as a "technical and administrative" official at the embassy.
The distinctions could have a bearing on the outcome since the Vienna Conventions, the international protocols under which diplomatic immunity is regulated, have different standards of immunity for officials employed at embassies and at consulates.
The Obama administration insists that Mr. Davis status as a "technical and administrative" official, a phrase used in the 1961 Vienna Conventions, grants him immunity from prosecution. The administration has repeatedly said Mr. Davis is being held illegally and must be released.
President Obama, speaking at a news conference earlier this week, referred to Mr. Davis as "our diplomat."
Officials assigned to consulates generally enjoy less immunity from prosecution in the host countries, according to lawyers who specialize in diplomatic law.
The judge in Lahore, Chief Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry, ordered the Foreign Ministry to present its findings on Mr. Davis's immunity in three weeks, a delay that is likely to intensify the standoff.
The Obama administration has already postponed a Washington meeting scheduled for later this month where Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States were to discuss progress in Afghanistan. The administration has warned Pakistan that a planned state visit by Mr. Zardari next month was in jeopardy if the case was not resolved, and Congress has threatened to cut military assistance.
The argument by Mr. Haris before the court echoed the hard line on the case taken by the former foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who lost his job in a Cabinet reshuffle last weekend because he said he refused to issue the "blanket immunity" for Mr. Davis being demanded by the United States, and favored by President Zardari and his close advisers.
Senator Kerry, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the sponsor of a $7.5 billion aid package for Pakistan, left Pakistan Wednesday night after meeting with top leaders, including President Zardari. He was confident, he said, that the Davis case would be resolved in the "next few days."
Mr. Kerry met with Mr. Qureshi, and the leader of the main opposition party, Nawaz Sharif, the most powerful politician in Punjab.
After those two meetings, Mr. Qureshi and Mr. Sharif did little to help the Americans to win Mr. Davis's release, suggesting that the courts should decide the case.
Mr. Qureshi, who had refused to declare Mr. Davis was a diplomat entitled to "blanket immunity," denied at a news conference that he was influenced by the Pakistani military in his decision.
Mr. Sharif criticized the United States for not handing over the people in the car that tried to rescue Mr. Davis, saying that Pakistani officials had written five letters to the Lahore consulate demanding to know the whereabouts of the people. The consulate had not replied, he said.
Mr. Davis is being held at the central jail in Lahore where American officials say he is sleeping on a foam mat on concrete floor without access to a cell phone, the Internet or television.
Video footage showing Mr. Davis declining to answer questions while in custody has been showing on the television channel Express News.
Apparently leaked from law enforcement authorities supervising Mr. Davis's custody, the footage shows Mr. Davis dressed in a blue jersey, impatiently getting up from a chair and indicating he would not cooperate.