Pakistani authorities have barred the US diplomat, Colonel Joseph, involved in a fatal traffic accident from leaving the country, forcing an American military aircraft flown in for his departure to leave without him, media reports said Saturday.
The move came a day after Pakistan said it would restrict the movements of all American diplomats in the country in response to Washington’s similar restrictions on Pakistani embassy diplomats.
A spokesman for the US Embassy in Islamabad declined to comment on either development.
On Friday, the Islamabad High Court had said that the US diplomat did not have absolute immunity in the April 7 traffic accident in which the US attache’s vehicle hit a motorcycle, killing the 22-year-old driver, and injuring his pillion rider.
A US Air Force C130 flown in to Pakistan’s Nur Khan air base outside Islamabad had to leave without him on Friday, media reports said.
Separately, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry had said it would apply travel restrictions to all US diplomatic staff similar to those applied by Washington, according to a notification sent to the US Embassy on Friday.
The new US rules require diplomats to obtain permission to travel more than 40 kilometers (25 miles) from their stations.
A spokeswoman for the US State Department on Saturday confirmed the new restrictions on its employees but declined further comment on them and said there was no immediate comment on the diplomat prevented from leaving on Saturday.
“We are in regular communication with our Pakistani counterparts. We do not discuss details of diplomatic conversations,” the spokeswoman said.
Published in Daily Times, May 13th 2018.
