WASHINGTON: Pakistan can persuade the two US diplomats involved in traffic accidents in Islamabad to cooperate with the investigation but it cannot detain them, diplomatic observers say.

In interviews to Dawn, diplomats at the Pakistan Embassy and other foreign mis­s­ions insist that once it is determined that the person invol­ved is entitled to diplomatic immunity, the host government cannot detain that person.

US Embassy’s Second Secretary Chad Rex Ausburn and the embassy’s military attaché, Col Joseph E. Hall, are involved in the road accidents that happened on April 7 and April 29.

“Pakistan cannot deny immunity to the two diplomats. They can only keep them in the country till investigations complete,” said a South Asian diplomat.

Diplomats in Washington say that in traffic accidents, the embassy has no legal obligation to pay compensation to the victims’ families.

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2018