ISLAMABAD, March 19: Pakistan’s former acting high commissioner in New Delhi, Jalil Abbas Jilani, has been appointed director-general South Asia, informed government sources told Dawn on Tuesday.

Mr Jilani was declared persona non grata by the Indian government last month, worsening the prevailing Pakistan-India diplomatic crisis.

“A decision has been taken by competent authorities to retain Jalil Abbas in the South Asia division,” sources said, adding that his appointment orders were issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday. Mr Jilani is expected to take charge on Friday. He will succeed Rashid Saleem who has been designated as DG Afghanistan.

A career diplomat, Mr Jilani, has returned to Pakistan after six years. Before being posted as deputy high commissioner in New Delhi in 1999, he served as political counsellor at the Pakistan embassy in Washington. In 1992, he was appointed as deputy secretary Foreign Affairs at the Prime Minister’s Secretariat and later re-designated as director India at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Mr Jilani served in India for almost four years, but was made to leave under unfortunate circumstances last month. The Indian authorities framed him in a case, accusing him of providing funds for separatist groups in Jammu and Kashmir.

Significantly, the woman whom he was said to have given the money for carrying out subversive activities later told the court that she had been coerced into making a false statement.

A leading Indian national daily ‘The Hindu’ carried this report on the front page recently.

The foreign office here criticized the Indian authorities for implicating Mr Jilani in a ‘false case’ and demanded that India ended its ‘systematic campaign of malice and disinformation’ against Pakistan and its diplomats.