ISLAMABAD, Feb 27: The government has decided to appoint Syed Mushahid Hussain as Minister for External Publicity, a new division to be created under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

A senior cabinet member told Dawn that external publicity wing would be separated from the ministry of information and in its place a fully-fledged division would be created that would be attached with the foreign affairs ministry.

Mushahid would then be entrusted with the task of external publicity. The creation of a new division had been felt in the wake of emerging dimensions of the foreign policy where relations with foreign media and publicity had to go side by side with diplomacy and required professional handling of foreign policy issues in the media, the cabinet member said.

The new division would comprise a mix of foreign ministry and Press Information Department (PID) officials.