Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office has finally decided to remove non-career ambassadors appointed in several countries by the previous Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government, replacing them with new ambassadors/high commissioners.

The ambassadors who are being shown the door are Ali Jehangir Sidiqui, ambassador to US; Tariq Azeem, high commissioner to Canada; Nadir Chaudhary, ambassador to Morocco; Kamran Shafi, ambassador to Cuba; Admiral (r) Hasham Bin Sideeq, ambassador to Saudi Arabia; Syed Adil Gilani, ambassador to Serbia; Sahibzada Ahmed Khan, high commissioner to UK and Brig (r) Syed Javed Hasan, counsel general in Dubai.

Pakistan’s High Commissioner to Malaysia Nafees Zakaria is being appointed as new high commissioner to UK; High Commissioner to UK Sahibzada Ahmed Khan has been named as new ambassador to Cuba; career diplomat Tayyab Ahsan Raza has been named as new ambassador to Qatar; counsel general in Jeddah Shahryar Akbar is being appointed as ambassador to Serbia, while Pakistan’s ambassador in Japan Asad Majeed Khan is being appointed as ambassador to US.

Raza Bashir Tarar, who is also a career diplomat, is being appointed as new high commissioner to Canada. Raja Ali Ejaz is being appointed as new ambassador to Saudi Arabia. Hamid Asghar, who is currently serving as DG Africa Desk, is being appointed as ambassador to Morocco. Senior diplomat Amjad Ali is being appointed as new counsel general in Dubai.

However, the government has not removed politically appointed permanent representative to UN Maleeha Lodhi, besides eight retired army generals and one air vice marshal who are serving in various countries. Qazi Khalilullah, ambassador to Russia, and Khalid Masood, ambassador to China, who retired from the foreign service but were rehired on contract, are not being changed.

“Recommendations by the Foreign Office about the appointment of these envoys have been sent to Prime Minister Imran Khan for approval,” Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told journalists at a press conference. He said Pakistan was pursuing a policy based on mutual benefits with other countries while keeping the national interests supreme. “In a bid to make the country’s foreign policy stronger and more robust, it has been decided to appoint professional diplomats in key foreign capitals,” he added.

Briefing the reporters about meeting with a high-level delegation of UAE officials, the minister said Pakistan has asked the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to provide deferred payment facility for import of oil, similar to the one agreed with Saudi Arabia earlier this week. He said the delegation is visiting Pakistan under the aegis of UAE Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed to discuss the mutually beneficial projects which both countries can undertake.

“In the meeting, we have discussed measures to expand the economic side of our longstanding bilateral ties. First, in the agriculture sector, we have discussed how we could increase our exports to the UAE. We have an exportable surplus in rice which we used to export, but in the last few years our exports have decreased considerably. In fruits, I discussed with them export of citrus and mangoes. We have both in abundance and there is a demand in UAE too. Due to our proximity, we can easily export this despite it being a perishable item,” he said, adding that the UAE has an advanced infrastructure for processing and packaging of food.

The minister said that the matter regarding setting up a state-of-the-art LNG terminal in Pakistan with UAE’s cooperation was also discussed during the meeting. He said a member of UAE’s real estate development company Emaar is also part of the delegation. “We told them that the government was planning to build five million houses and asked if they could be of any help in this regard,” he said.

Published in Daily Times, October 27^th 2018.