LAHORE, Feb 1: The Lahore High Court restrained the federal and provincial governments on Tuesday from removing US citizen Raymond Davis, who is accused of killing two young Pakistanis, outside the jurisdiction of the court and ordered that his name be placed on the Exit Control List.

The LHC Chief Justice, Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry, issued the order after hearing four identical petitions and directed the deputy attorney general to procure a report from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to resolve the controversy relating to diplomatic immunity being claimed for the accused.

Earlier, Advocate General of Punjab Khwaja Haris told the court that the matter of diplomatic immunity had neither arisen so far nor it had been claimed for the accused.

He said the court had already taken cognizance of the matter and investigation was under way and if the matter of immunity arose in future that could be determined by courts of law.

Both the AGP and Deputy Attorney General Naveed Inayat Malik denied reports to the effect that the accused would be unlawfully transferred out of Pakistan. They also denied that the government was facing any pressure from any quarter.

The DAG, on the court’s earlier directions, submitted a report on behalf of the Ministry of Interior which stated that an advice had been sought from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to clarify whether Raymond Davis was an employee of the US embassy and as such whether he enjoyed diplomatic status.

The petitioners through their counsel have contended that according to the Diplomatic Convention of 1961 and the Vienna Convention, attaché level officials and technical staff of any foreign mission were not supposed to enjoy any immunity from the law.

A counsel pointed out that in 1997 a Georgia deputy ambassador who was drunk and killed a young girl in America in a road accident, was tried in a US court and punished accordingly.

Barrister Javed Iqbal Jaffrey, Asif Hussain Shah, Muhammad Asghar and Ahmad Masood Gujjar have filed the petitions. The next hearing is due on Feb 17.

RESIGNATION: Punjab’s Deputy Prosecutor General Rana Bakhtiar resigned on Tuesday after the government stopped him from appearing in the court on behalf of the state in the case of double murder by Raymond Davis.

“I have quit the post and sent my resignation to quarters concerned after I came to know about the government’s decision to stop me from pursuing this case,” Mr Bakhtiar told Dawn.

He said he had also sent back officials deputed for his protocol duty and the official vehicle he was using.

“I have always worked honestly and with utmost dedication in various important cases. I also hope for the best for myself as well as my colleagues and seniors in future,” he added.

Sources told Dawn that the government had restrained Mr Bakhtiar from acting in an ‘irresponsible’ manner by giving premature statements to media regarding the high-profile case of Raymond Davis and another of his alleged companion occupying another vehicle.

They said the DPG had spoken to media about Davis’s plea that he had killed the two youths in self-defence and about the issue of immunity. They said that on the directives of the Punjab government the prosecution department had stopped the DPG from working on the case and was in the process of nominating a new prosecutor.

The secretary of the prosecution department could not be contacted for comment.