Washington: Washington is awaiting Islamabad's reply to its request for lifting diplomatic immunity of Pakistan's United Nations Envoy Munir Akram to prosecute him for allegedly assaulting a woman.

"What we do in these cases is to ask the foreign government, when there is a possibility of a criminal proceeding, to waive the diplomatic immunity of the person, and we pursue that," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

"We would hope that other governments would waive the immunity and allow those fair and open proceedings to take place," he said.

Akram, on December 10, had allegedly smashed his "girlfriend's" head on to a wall.

The lady identified as Marijana Mihic had earlier reported the matter to the police describing Akram as her husband, but when police officers arrived, she said that the Pakistan Ambassador was her "boyfriend", and not husband as she first told the police.

Boucher said that he could not get too far into this specific case, but did not have any outcome to report now.

This is largely a law enforcement matter in New York "involving this gentleman", Boucher said.

The law enforcement agencies decide on legal grounds, on what happens legally in terms of the allegations and possible legal proceedings, he said, adding, "Our job is to try to get the other government to waive immunity so that those procedures can take place."

PTI