US diplomat involved in fatal accident refused to leave country

A day after the reciprocal travel restrictions on the US diplomats in Pakistan, the United States has seen another setback when the authorities did not allow the diplomat Emanuel Joseph to leave the country for his involvement in a fatal accident in Islamabad.

A special aircraft arrived at the Nur Khan Airbase in Rawalpindi to take the American diplomat home. However, Pakistani immigration officials refused to allow the Defence and Air Attache Col Joseph Emmanuel Hall from boarding the plane, compelling him to return to the embassy. The aircraft left with some equipment and personnel of the embassy.

On April 7, US Defence and Air Attaché Col Joseph Emanuel Hall ran a red light at Daman-i-Koh Chowk and hit a motorcycle. Consequently, two riders of the bike suffered injuries and one of them, 22-year-old Ateeq Baig, succumbed to his injuries.

The Ministry of Interior later placed Hall’s on a ‘blacklist’, prohibiting him from leaving the country without prior permission. 

Mohammad Idrees, Ateeq’s father, had filed a petition through his counsel Shahzad Akbar for placement of the diplomat’s name on the Exit Control List (ECL). The CCTV footage of the Safe City Project shows the diplomat driving a white land cruiser at a high speed and hitting the motorcycle by violating the red traffic signal.

The IHC on last Friday gave the Interior Ministry two weeks to reach a decision on placing the diplomat’s name on the ECL. The court also observed that Hall did not enjoy full diplomatic immunity.

A day earlier, Pakistan has imposed multiple restrictions on US diplomatic staff in the country in response to travel restrictions imposed by Washington on Pakistani diplomatic staff in the United States. The tit-for-tat move by the Pakistani government shows the strained relations between the two countries.