"Him being a diplomat does not mean he can kill our citizens," Islamabad High Court's (IHC) Justice Amir Farooq remarked on Wednesday while hearing a petition seeking American diplomat Col Joseph Emanuel Hall's placement on the Exit Control List (ECL).

Earlier this month, Hall had run a red light and hit a motorcycle in Islamabad, killing one citizen, Atiq Baig, and injured another.

The incident had been recorded by CCTV cameras.

On Wednesday, Justice Farooq reprimanded the station house officer (SHO) of Police Station Kohsar for failing to take the accused's statement and conducting a blood test following the incident.

"The police itself destroys cases this way," he said.

"If the law protects him [the diplomat], it also protects our citizens," the judge remarked, asking the SHO why the accused's statement was recorded in Urdu. "What if he backs off [from his statement] tomorrow saying he does not know Urdu?"

The police official said that the statement had been given by the accused in English but written in Urdu by him.

"A white man, and that too an American — you must have felt very nervous," the judge remarked.

He also ordered a report regarding the diplomat's placement on the ECL, which is to be presented to the court by Tuesday.

The deputy attorney general said that a committee has already been constituted on the matter. "We will send this case to the committee and submit a report in court," he said.

The judge, however, was not satisfied with the reply.

"The committee may never hold a session," he remarked, adding that the creation of a committee was no more than a delaying tactic.

The hearing was adjourned to April 24.