Pakistan’s embattled U.N. ambassador said yesterday he’s not going anywhere – even though Washington asked Pakistan to strip his diplomatic immunity so he can face domestic-violence charges in Manhattan.
“My government sent me here to represent my country. I came to stay – and my government wants me to stay,” Ambassador Munir Akram told The Post.
The international brouhaha stems from a 1:36 a.m. police call on Dec. 10 from Marijana Mihic, 35, who said a man she called her husband – Akram – had smashed her head into a wall and that he had hit her.
But when cops came to his luxury townhouse on East 92nd Street, Mihic said she had fallen and that the man was her “boyfriend” – not husband.
U.S. diplomats have given Pakistan until today to let them know if that nation will remove Akram’s immunity so he can be prosecuted by Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau.
Pakistan also has the option of sending him home or refusing the State Department’s request.
U.S. diplomats said Akram’s comments come as no surprise.
“Of course, he’d say his government is backing him,” one diplomat said. “But what is the government saying?”
Akram spoke with The Post as he left yesterday’s U.N. Security Council meeting, where chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix was briefing diplomats on the weapons hunt in Iraq.
Pakistan, a leading Islamic country in America’s war on terror, on Jan. 1 landed a prize, two-year seat on the prestigious Security Council. The U.S. may turn to the 15-member Security Council for authorization before it invades Iraq.
The Manhattan’s DA’s office said it would press misdemeanor assault charges if and when immunity is waived – even though Mihic has refused to press charges.