Pakistan’s most visible diplomatic rockstar

For Lodhi, diplomacy has never been a 9 to 5 bureaucratic career: it has been a lifelong calling to serve the country

Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi, much like Pakistan, has an uncanny knack for living in the eye of the storm. On 9/11, she was Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States (her son had been missing in New York for several hours that fateful day). When America imposed sanctions to reign in our nuclear programme, she successfully lobbied against them in the 90s. After India unilaterally revoked Article 370, she helped orchestrate the first UNSC meeting on Kashmir, after decades of studied indifference. In my final conversation with her before she left the office earlier this week, she broke down in tears, taking both her and me by surprise, as she rarely lets her guard down in public.

After serving as the most prominent face of Pakistani diplomacy for over two decades, everyone thinks they know who Ambassador Lodhi is. Always poised, she shatters every stereotype the world has of Pakistani women: she’s opinionated, forcefully articulate in the defence of her country and a magician when it comes to cultural and high wattage media diplomacy. But hiding underneath that warm, iconic composure is a woman who’s sacrificed many things quietly, including the chance of living a fulfilling personal life.

To understand Lodhi is to understand the contradictions of the Pakistani state on the international stage. Several years ago, when I asked her how she ended up as Pakistan’s top diplomat to the UN, she argued it was a series of accidents, chance and good luck. “When Benazir first asked me to serve Pakistan as a diplomat,” she shared, “I pushed back by saying I had no prior experience in diplomacy. Benazir responded teasingly by arguing she didn’t have prior experience in being prime minister either.”

On August 16, 2019, the UNSC discussed Kashmir after four decades. To set the scene, two nuclear powers stood on the brink of disaster. Lodhi was sitting in a room outside the SC, anxiously waiting for the Chinese Ambassador to come out (only UNSC members could be inside the room). In a swift diplomatic manoeuvre that caught the Indians off-guard, the Chinese Ambassador addressed the media, followed by Ambassador Lodhi. She carried the burden of representing the voice of the Pakistani and Kashmiri people from the highest diplomatic platform in the world. I asked her how she felt at that moment.

“Just because you’re a diplomat,” Ambassador Lodhi shared, her voice beginning to crack unexpectedly, “Doesn’t mean you stop being a human being… The Kashmiri people are looking to me to represent them…” she couldn’t continue with the conversation. “I’m sorry,” she said, trying to hold back tears before breaking down. She stood up and took a walk around the room to regain her composure. As someone who’s closely observed Lodhi’s steely composure, even under intense grilling by high profile anchors on the likes of CNN, I was taken aback by the toll her calling had taken on her. For a fleeting moment, one could see through the diplomatic equivalent of the poker face she’s put on for Pakistan. And it was beautiful.

This anecdote is illustrative of why she is who she is. For her, diplomacy has never been a 9 to 5 bureaucratic career. It’s been a lifelong calling to serve the country, even at the cost of personal sacrifice. After Lodhi spoke outside the SC meeting on Kashmir that day, the Indian Ambassador scrambled to do a follow-up act but the punch of the Chinese and Pakistani ambassadors shaping the narrative forced him on the back foot, with his nervousness palpable and visibly showing.

Ambassador Lodhi is still weighing what she’d like to do next in life. For Pakistan’s sake, I hope she doesn’t fade into the shadows but continues to thrive in the eye of the storm. We need talented women like her — who can light up the UNGA with chants of “Allah Hoo” during a Rahat Fateh Ali Khan performance — now more than ever.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 3^rd, 2019.

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