US diplomat on 'blacklist': Foreign Office seeks clarity from interior ministry

Foreign Office has approached Ministry of Interior seeking clarity on placing American diplomat Colonel Joseph Emanuel Hall on the "blacklist" even though he enjoys immunity under the Vienna Convention, Foreign Office sources told Business Recorder. Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Raja Khalid told Islamabad High Court on Tuesday that Colonel Joseph Emanuel Hall, a military attaché at the US Embassy rammed into a motorcycle in Islamabad on April 7 killing the driver instantly, has been put on the blacklist and "thus, he cannot leave Pakistan".
"We are seeking clarification from the Interior Minister to remove the confusion, as the American diplomat involved in the traffic accident enjoys immunity under the Vienna Convention", said a senior Foreign Office official who wished not to be named. When approached Foreign Office spokesperson Dr Mohammad Faisal expressed his inability to comment on the matter, saying: "The matter pertains to Ministry of Interior and hence all queries regarding the American diplomat should be forwarded to the concerned ministry".
A senior official of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on condition of anonymity explained to Business Recorder that "blacklist" is a sort of Exit Control List (ECL) however while the decision to place someone on the ECL is taken by the government, the decision to place someone on the blacklist is taken by the concerned law enforcement agency after taking permission from the court.
Once a person is placed on the "blacklist", he said, his/her passport and ID card are blocked and hence travelling out of the country is no longer possible. In the case of a foreigner, he said that his/her name along with passport number and picture are placed in the Integrated Border Management System (IBMS) to avert his/her exit from the country.
This matter is the latest reason behind the rising diplomatic tensions between Pakistan and the US. Ambassador Alice Wells, the US Department of State's Senior Bureau Official for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, while visiting Islamabad on April 23, raised the matter during her talks with Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua. Sources said that the US diplomat was conveyed that the government of Pakistan is pursuing the matter under Articles 31 and 32 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961 which inter alia deal with diplomatic immunity.
Ambassador Wells was further told that the US diplomat will be treated under Pakistan's Diplomatic and Consular Privileges Act 1972, which draws from the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961 and Vienna Convention on Consular Relations 1963, the sources added.
The US had earlier secured a safe release of Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor who on January 27, 2011 shot and killed two men on a motorbike and a third died while his car backed into him in Lahore.
In 1997, the US secured a waiver of the diplomatic immunity of a Georgian diplomat, Gueorgui Makharadze, allowing his court trial. He pled guilty on charges of "involuntary manslaughter and aggravated assault for driving while intoxicated" and causing the death of a teenage girl and injuring four others in Washington.
The Colonel Joseph Hall incident was followed by new travel curbs on Pakistani diplomats, to be applicable from May 1, restricting movement of diplomats of Pakistan Embassy in Washington DC and consulates in other cities of the US within 40km of their postings. Through an official communication conveyed to Pakistan, it has been stated that Pakistani diplomats in Washington and other cities would require a formal permission of the State Department when travelling beyond 40 kilometers radius of their posted locations.