ISLAMABAD - Pakistan on Monday allowed United States Military Attache Colonel Joseph Emanuel Hall to fly back home around five weeks after he killed a Pakistani national in a road mishap.
The US diplomat was flown back to his country in a special plane earlier in the day, diplomatic sources told The Nation.
Hall was briefly arrested on April 7 after running a red light and ramming a motorcycle with his vehicle, killing a Pakistani national and wounding two others.
Ateeq Baig, 22, had died on the spot. His cousin, Raheel, suffered a leg fracture and another was wounded. The police registered a case against the American diplomat at the Kohsar police station on behalf of Baig’s father, Mohammed Idrees. The statements of the survivors and Baig’s father were recorded by the police.
He was later released by the police as the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961 provided the diplomat immunity from criminal prosecution.
Later, the Islamabad High Court ruled that Colonel Hall did not have ‘absolute immunity.’ The court had also granted two weeks to the Ministry of Interior to decide over placing his name on the Exit Control List.
A security official Syed Taimor Iqbal, part of Colonel Hall’s security detail, was arrested for obstructing a police officer from performing his duty. Arrest orders were also issued for all other officials involved in helping Colonel Hall flee from the police station.
Over the weekend, Pakistan refused to allow Hall to fly back home in a special plane sent by his country. Hall’s family was, however, permitted to leave.
Diplomatic sources said the police had handed over all record related to Colonel Hall to the US embassy officials.
Officials at the foreign ministry said Hall was a diplomat and Pakistan’s criminal, civil, and administrative laws were not applicable to him. “We tried to get an exemption from the US but they refused to exempt him from the diplomatic immunity. We had no option but to respect the international laws,” said one official adding, some compensation will be given to the victim family.
He said: “The permission was granted after lengthy talks. We have been in contact over the issue since April 7. He was not allowed to leave until both sides agreed on the point.”
Relations between Washington and Islamabad have been in the spotlight since US President Donald Trump’s New Year’s Day tweet, where he accused Pakistan of ‘lies and deceit.’
Trump said: “The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies and deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!”
Last week, Pakistan issued a new travel permission regime for the American diplomats, restricting their movement and revoking undue facilities across the country.
A letter issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the embassy of the United States said the US diplomatic cargo at Pakistani airports and ports will be strictly treated in accordance with the provisions of Article 27 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which does not provide for an exemption from scanning.
The decision was taken reciprocating to travel permission regime introduced by the US government on Pakistani diplomats and officials.
The letter said the US embassy and consulates in Pakistan will no longer avail facilities of using tainted glass on official vehicles and rented transport, non-diplomatic number plates on official vehicles, diplomatic number plates on unspecified and rented vehicles; and the facility of biometrically unverified or unregistered cell phone SIMs.
Facilities of hiring or shifting of rented properties without a prior no-objection certificate and overshooting visa validity periods and having multiple passports were also withdrawn.
