A massive reshuffle in the Foreign Office is in the offing as all the grade 22 positions in the Ministry are falling vacant and most of the grade 21 officers are being sent out on ambassadorial assignments.
The much awaited posting plan is finally out whereby almost a dozen officers have been made envoys abroad. Prominent among those are Special Secretary Raza Bashir Tarar who is being sent to Tokyo, Additional Secretary/Spokesperson Asim Iftikhar Ahmed to Paris, Additional Secretary Ali Javed to Rome, Additional Secretary Faisal Niaz to Abu Dhabi and Additional Secretary Aamer Aftab to Athens. Ankara and Damascus have been assigned to non-career appointees.
Director-General of Foreign Service Academy (FSA) Zahid Nasrullah has just retired while Foreign Secretary Sohail Mahmood is set to retire next month. The appointment of the new foreign secretary is likely to be decided very soon. The names circulating in media include Jauhar Saleem, the envoy in Rome, and Syrus Sajjad Qazi, the envoy in Ankara.
Ambassador Jauhar Saleem is from 13th CTP and would be number one on the seniority list when Sohail Mahmood retires. Having studied International Affairs and International Economics at University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), Johns Hopkins and Georgetown University, he has also been at the adjunct faculty of leading universities in the United States and Europe.
Ambassador Syrus Qazi is from 18th CTP. He is number 14 on the seniority list and yet to be promoted to grade 22. He has served as Ambassador to Hungary, before his current assignment in Turkey. He has rich experience of political diplomacy and is known as a hardworking and sharp focused diplomat.