Pakistan appoints new envoys to US, UN

The government on Friday named new ambassadors for the US and the UN Permanent Mission in New York, bringing in career diplomats despite earlier speculations that some political appointees might take the coveted slots.

The decision was confirmed by the Foreign Office spokesperson at the weekly briefing.

“The Government of Pakistan has decided to appoint Additional Foreign Secretary (Middle East and SIFC) Ambassador Rizwan Saeed Sheikh as Pakistan’s new ambassador to Washington DC and Ambassador Asim Iftikhar as Pakistan’s Additional Permanent Representative to the United Nations, New York. Ambassador Asim Iftikhar is currently serving as Pakistan’s ambassador to France,” Mumtaz Zahra Baloch told reporters at her weekly briefing.

Ambassador Rizwan will replace Masood Khan, who was a career diplomat but appointed as ambassador to the US on a contract basis.

Just hours before the resolution, US Ambassador to Pakistan Donald Blome met Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Ishaq Dar at the Foreign Office. The two sides reviewed the latest developments in bilateral relations and discussed ways to move the relationship forward, said an official handout.

When asked whether the appointment of Ambassador to the US was linked to the current hiccup in ties and failure of the incumbent envoy, the spokesperson dismissed such speculations.

“The announcements that I just made are part of a regular posting cycle and the appointments were under consideration over the last several weeks. The announcement has just been made,” she added.

While Ambassador Rizwan will take over the responsibilities from Ambassador Masood, interestingly Ambassador Asim Iftikhar was appointed as additional permanent representative at the UN, New York. This means that the current Ambassador to the UN, Munir Akram, would continue his job for a while.

Ambassador Akram is a veteran diplomat and retired a long time ago. But he was appointed as ambassador to the UN given his vast experience at the multilateral forum. To a question, the spokesperson did not offer any comment as to when Ambassador Akram’s contract would expire.

North-South Corridor

The spokesperson said Pakistan in principle had no objection to the International North South Transport Corridor, a 7,200km-long corridor providing alternative trade route to connect Russia with central and South Asia.