ISLAMABAD: Islamabad district officials and a local politician played a key role in convincing the family of Ateeq Baig, who was killed by a US diplomat in a road accident, to pardon the driver and accept compensation.
“I was requested by the district administration to convince the family to make the settlement,” Hajji Mehrban, a local government councilor and distant relative of the victim’s family, told Arab News.
He said the district administration had told him and the victim’s family that as the US military attaché, Col. Joseph Emanuel Hall, had diplomatic immunity, it would be “impossible” for the government to hold him in Pakistan for long.
“The district administration has promised to pay compensation to the family once they submit a pardon statement to the court,” he said, adding that Islamic law also allows blood money, or financial compensation, to be paid to a victim’s family in murder cases.
“I think the family (of the deceased) has made a wise decision,” he said.
Mehrban also played a key role in organizing protests against the US in Islamabad after the accident and taking the case to the Islamabad High Court over the government’s failure to investigate the US diplomat.
Following the court’s directives, the government placed Col. Hall on a “blacklist,” barring him from leaving Pakistan until the case had been investigated.
The US embassy, however, confirmed on Monday evening that Col. Hall had left for the US on a special plane after the government removed his name from the list.
Muteeb Baig, brother of the deceased, also confirmed to Arab News that the family had pardoned the US diplomat on “the district administration’s request.”
He said the administration’s officials had promised to pay the family compensation after the pardon statement was submitted in court.
“I have discussed with my lawyer about the pardon statement and we will submit it in the court soon,” he said.
Baig added that the US embassy had not contacted his family after the accident, adding that no one had offered them blood money on behalf of the US.
“We have pardoned him (Col. Hall) and hope that the district administration will keep its word on monetary compensation,” he said.
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Dr. Mohammed Faisal, said that the US had assured Pakistan that it would investigate to Col. Hall in the US over his involvement in the fatal accident.
“Pakistan has shared the available evidence with US officials,” he said.
When asked about blood money, he said that the Foreign Office had no details on the financial compensation paid to the victim’s family.
US embassy spokesperson, Richard Snelsire, also said he had no knowledge of any settlement between the US and the family of Atiq Baig.
“I am unaware of the US paying any money to the family of the deceased,” he told Arab News.