Pakistani journalist claims USA has imposed drastic restrictions on Pakistani diplomats in Washington DC

Noted senior Pakistani journalist Nusrat Javed has claimed that the United States (US) has imposed drastic sanctions on the Pakistani diplomats posted in Washington DC, saying, seeking permission to cross the radius of 25 kilometers will be mandatory for them from May 1.

"The US has made it mandatory for the Pakistani diplomats posted in Washington DC to seek permission to step outside the radius of 25 kilometers since May 1," said Nusrat on a TV show titled 'Bol Bol Pakistan.'

With this move, the diplomatic relations between the US and Pakistan, are expected to sour further, which are already going through a rough patch following an American envoy allegedly running down three people in Islamabad earlier this month.

"The restrictions are the ones which the US usually imposes on the countries it despises. For instance, the Russian diplomats have been expelled out of the country (over the poisoning of a former spy in Britain). However, such restrictions have not been slapped on Russia," the senior journalist noted.

Colonel Joseph Emanuel Hall, Defence and Air attache at the US Embassy in Pakistan, on Saturday, ran down three persons in Daman-e-Koh, north of Islamabad, prompting Pakistan to summon the US Ambassador David Hale to lodge a formal protest.

However, unlike American intelligence operative Raymond Davis, who, in 2011, was arrested in Lahore on charges of killing two Pakistani citizens, stirring up a massive diplomatic rift with Islamabad, Hall is not in police custody and is back on the embassy compound.

Earlier, the US State Department had conveyed to the Pakistan Embassy in Washington DC that if it does not ease the travel of the US diplomats, reciprocal restrictions will be imposed on the Pakistan envoys in the US from May 1, including restrictions on travel beyond 25 kilometers of the city of posting.