ISLAMABAD - A US diplomat, allegedly drunk and ignoring
red traffic signal, rammed his Prado jeep (LG-1) into the CDA fire-brigade
vehicle near Radio Pakistan Chowk here Sunday, causing Rs 2.5 million loss to
CDA.
According to Station House Officer (SHO), Secretariat Police Station,
preliminary investigations revealed the diplomat was drunk. Eyewitnesses said
the fire-brigade vehicle was coming from Radio Pakistan Chowk towards
National Library when the diplomat’s vehicle, breaking the red signal, hit
it. They said after the incident, the US diplomat even did not bother to come
out from his vehicle and later the US security personnel took him along with
them without allowing the police their lawful procedures.
Police officials said they waited at the site of the accident for quite
sometime, but no one from the US embassy approached them. Later they lodged
an FIR on the request of the CDA driver under Section 289 against the US
diplomat Jimmy Mort. Mustafain Kazmi, CDA spokesperson, said the civic
authority had recently imported these state of the art vehicles from abroad
and the said vehicle was completely computerised.He said as a result of
accident control panel of the vehicle was badly damaged. He said the whole
base of the vehicle would be replaced that would cost Rs 2.5 million, as the
damaged part of the machinery was not available in local market and would be
imported from Finland.Several attempts were made to contact spokespersons of
the US embassy and the Foreign Office, however, they were not available for
comments. The question once again is: is there any law applicable to
Americans in Pakistan?
