If the state of Pakistan - that is the government, political elite and establishment - had managed to retain even a shred of doubt over its subjugation to an imperial United States of America, the Davis case laid this bare. Today, the Pakistani nation stands orphaned with its rulers acquiescing to its destruction and murder on all fronts. The President, Prime Minister and the military are constitutionally compelled to protect all the citizens of the state, including the minorities (preamble to the Constitution and Article 9) as well as the sovereignty and integrity of Pakistan (Presidential and Prime Ministers oaths). But in reality, especially since 9/11 and Musharrafs devilish deal with the US, the state of Pakistan has done all it can to undermine the security and lives of the citizens of Pakistan - that is the Pakistani nation. Nowhere in the world can one cite an example of a state with a well-equipped military permitting (perhaps even inviting) a foreign power to come in and kill its people at will through drone attacks - and then lie to the people on this count. Pakistani lives have been shown to have no value with the state offering its citizens to the US in renditions as well as simply making its citizens disappear and then allowing their dead bodies to emerge again. American security personnel, including private contractors, have been allowed to run amok across the length and breadth of Pakistan, injuring or killing at will any who stood in their way and the law enforcers have turned a blind eye or simply harassed the victims. Even on the economic front, the state has relinquished all authority to the IMF chosen economy managers - over-paid and ignorant of national realities. In such an environment, why would Davis have expected anything other than a free run even as he gunned down two Pakistani citizens, while his cohorts ran over a third? Now many US apologists are trying to show that the two murdered men were undercover agents following Davis (himself an undercover CIA agent) - an action that is normal in most states - as if that somehow makes the murders kosher Despite the double murders, the evidence of espionage and possession of illegal weapons, the criminal Davis has been set free by a wrongful use of the Diyat provision in Pakistani law. It is indeed an irony that the liberals, who have been against Shariah, are now applauding the Diyat law, which allowed Davis to be set free The most shameful aspect of the whole case is the fact that the Pakistani state used taxpayers money to dole out the compensation to the families of the murdered victims. The US has itself exposed the antics of the Pakistani state by making it clear that it did not pay any blood money - proving once again that befriending the US comes with a heavy price and eventual betrayal. However, the main issue is that the murders were not a case for Diyat since Davis was representing the US government - be it as a mercenary or CIA agent - so he was not acting in his private capacity when he killed the two men. Hence, the murders were an act of terrorism against the state of Pakistan by an agent of the United States. Ironically, when the big guns of the state, including an increasingly pusillanimous establishment were cowering before a raging Obama at his imperial best, the Foreign Office seemed to be the only part of the state to stand its ground on the immunity issue. Perhaps, the most reprehensible part of the Davis saga was the manner in which it appears the lives of Pakistanis were apparently traded for a better ISI deal from the CIA Clearly, ordinary Pakistani lives are not worth anything but then that should have been clear from the complicity of the military leadership in the drone attacks. One general even went out to declare that most drone victims are militants, despite evidence to the contrary from multiple sources. How a general can tell who is a militant by looking at a dead and often mutilated body is even more intriguing, but there is no stopping the urge to prove more loyal than the king for some Of course, the lethal drone attack that killed over 40 innocent people of a tribal jirga immediately in the aftermath of the Davis departure left no room for any claims of militants being targeted and killed. This was the US gift to a Pakistani state that has in fact sold out its citizens lives to the Americans, who have been given a license to kill. The protests from the COAS and Prime Minister lacked credibility. After all, both can simply withdraw support from the drone policy and then bring one down, if the US continues to use them in FATA - the PAF Chief had declared over a year ago that Pakistan had this capability. Unfortunately, no one within the state seeks to let go of the murderous US hand and it is no use isolating who is the major culprit - they are all guilty of abandoning the Pakistani nation. Worse still, they are insulting the nations intelligence by talking of a dependency on the US, which has been artificially created, especially the military one. Since 1967, when the US cut off military supplies and spares to Pakistan formally, the Pakistan military has moved towards indigenous production as well as acquisition of major weapon systems from alternate sources. There is now not only an indigenous conventional capability, but also missile capability with the Hatf series now solid fuelled. The armys tanks, APCs and other conventional weapons have no US component. We got some helicopters during the Zia dictatorship, but then they had to be grounded when their sensitive rotors caught dust and US spares were not forthcoming. Now again, we have some US weapons systems for the army in support of the counter terrorism war, but these are not essential for our offensive strategies. The PAF may feel it has a greater dependency on the US in terms of acquiring F-16s, but here also we have developed alternatives with Chinese assistance such as the JF-17, the A5 (close support), F 7P (interceptor fighter), and the various Mirage 3 and 5 platforms, purchased from France and Australia, but now totally updated with advanced Italian avionics packages. Certainly, the F-16s add to the strength of the PAF, but for decades we maintained a credible air force without US components. Also, F-16s come at a high cost - both financial and political, as we learnt the last time we paid for the F-16s, but eventually got wheat and soya beans. Our air launched cruise missiles also have no US dependency factor. As for the navy, the main offensive weapon system is the submarine and the subs are French in origin, but we are in the process of acquiring indigenous capability. In terms of training, given the disastrous record of the US in fighting asymmetric conflicts from Vietnam to Afghanistan, we hardly need their trainers Also, unlike a domestic production industry, which has hi-tech spin-offs for the civilian sector, importing US weaponry creates an artificial dependency with no local spin-offs. So, the myth of military dependency is only being propagated by vested interests amongst the military and lobbyists and defence contractors. We also have to wait to see the intrusive conditionalities on our nuclear programme become operationalised under the Kerry-Lugar Act. Even on the economic front, the dependency is more of a myth because if some of our Pakistani elite can hold millions in property and bank accounts abroad, much of it ill-gotten, then there is sufficient national wealth and resource for development, if corruption was weeded out and the stolen wealth brought back. Again, if only those who should be paying taxes actually paid them, including our political, agricultural and business elite plus all those professionals whose incomes are not taxed at source, we would generate national revenues. It is all a matter of national will, but that is nowhere to be found within a state that has lost all credibility in its subjugation to the US will. In The Myth of Independence, Bhutto warned against being in the grip of a unidimensional US-centric approach to external policy, with one chapter entitled American policy to bring Pakistan under Indian hegemony He recalled Pakistans first military dictator Ayubs loyally stating to the US Congress (1961) that Pakistan was the only country in Asia where the US forces could land at any moment for the defence of the 'free world; and proudly admitting that the U2 aircraft took off from Pakistan Are our military and civilian power holders any different today? That is why the people of Pakistan have been orphaned in their own land.