March 26, 2003	Wednesday	Muharram 22, 1424

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

WASHINGTON, March 25: Academic and diplomat Shirin Tahir-Kheli has been appointed special assistant to the president and senior director for democracy, human rights and international operations, the White House said on Tuesday.

Ambassador Tahir-Kheli is the first American of Pakistani origin to be appointed to such a key position in the US administration. She was most recently a research professor at the Johns Hopkins University Foreign Policy Institute, School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, where she was founding director of the South Asia.

Ambassador Tahir-Kheli was alternate US representative to the United Nations for special political affairs from 1990 to 1993 and director of Near East and South Asian affairs from 1984 to 1989 with the National Security Council staff. From 1982 to 1984, Ambassador Tahir-Kheli was a member of the policy planning staff at the State Department.

She headed the US delegation to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in 2001, and was appointed by President Bush to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.

She is author of India, Pakistan, and the United States: Breaking with the Past (Council on Foreign Relations Press, 1997).