‘Envoy to India may become Pak foreign secretary’
ISLAMABAD: High Commissioner to India Sohail Mahmood is the front-runner for the post of Pakistan’s next foreign secretary when incumbent Tehmina Janjua retires.
Janjua, the first woman to hold the post, will retire on April 17 after serving for two years. A report in the Daily Dawn newspaper on Sunday said the race for the foreign secretary’s job has been lacklustre, particularly when compared to the bruising competitions on the last two occasions of 2013 and 2017. The last race was especially ugly because it ended with the resignation of former high commissioner to India Abdul Basit, who was once the rising star of the foreign office. There was a public spat between the former high commissioner and the then outgoing foreign secretary Aizaz Chaudhry.
The 2013 run was equally controversial, as the Nawaz Sharif government had recalled Abdul Basit from Germany, where he was posted as ambassador, and appointed him the foreign secretary, only to replace his nomination with Aizaz before he could take charge. Basit was then sent to New Delhi.
According to the report, the other main contender this time is Pakistan’s envoy to the UAE, Moazzam Ahmed. Ahmed was instrumental in arranging meetings between the Pakistani leadership and the UAE monarchy.
Mahmood’s colleagues describe him as affable and a workaholic. He has diverse experience of bilateral as well as multilateral diplomacy under his belt, having represented the country in Turkey, the US, the UN in New York, Thailand and India. He has also headed the Afghanistan and West Asia division as additional secretary and remained director general of foreign secretary’s office.
The paper quoted a source as saying that Mahmood had a lucky career in foreign service and “has been at the right place at the right time”.