Disrespect to diplomatic norms by US causes concern

Posted on 9 months ago

Embassy does not furnish detail of arms, staff
Rana Qaisar
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan-United States relations, though apparently returning to normal with the reopening of the NATO supplies and signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to regulate the transportation of non-lethal items to and from Afghanistan, still remain on the brink because of the US embassy's disrespect to the diplomatic protocol in the country.
The issue of illegal weapons, the total number of the US staff in the embassy and their specific jobs is a major security concern that continues to worry the Foreign Office and the law-enforcers as the US embassy has not furnished these details despite having been told to do so almost three months before.
A source told The Frontier Post that the Foreign Office had invited the diplomats for a meeting on April 18, to convey to them that no diplomat would carry arms. "They (the diplomats) were told that they could carry arms only if they had obtained licences from the authorities concerned in Pakistan following the legal process," the source said.
Besides this, the source said, the representatives of foreign missions were also asked to provide the details of the weapons they had brought to Pakistan either through diplomatic channel or they had obtained them from within Pakistan without following the legal procedure and obtaining licenses for these weapons.
"The embassies were asked to provide this information to the Foreign Office by May 3," the source said, adding that most of the embassies had submitted the details they had been asked for but the US embassy had not complied with the Foreign Office's request.
Similarly, the US embassy has also not provided the details of its staff members and specification of their jobs. "We are not sure who is a diplomat, who works on the administrative side, who is on the roll of the technical staff and who forms the basis of service staff," the source said.
He said the US embassy had also not provided any details about the accommodation taken on rent for its staff in different cities including Islamabad besides informing the Foreign Office about the warehouses under its use.
Under the Vienna Convention, it was important to provide the above information to the host country. "But the US embassy is blatantly ignoring this diplomatic protocol," the source said, adding that it was also not known as to who was working for the CIA among the embassy staff in Islamabad.
He said the movement of armed and unidentified US personnel might create tension between the two countries like that of the Raymond Davis issue which was a glaring example of disregard to diplomatic norms.
It may be recalled here that six people, including three US nationals, were detained in Peshawar on June 4 after police had discovered a large cache of illegal arms from their vehicles. These weapons had reportedly included 4 M4 assault rifles with 36 magazines and 4 pistols with 30 magazines.
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