May 12, 2003	Monday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 9, 1424

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

ISLAMABAD, May 11: Hectic consultations are under way in Islamabad to find an appropriate person to fill the slot of the Pakistan ambassador to New Delhi.

“Pakistan Foreign Office is the lead name-identifying institution at the moment,” say sources close to the prime minister without denying that the prime minister’s and president’s secretariats are busy with a similar exercise.

The foreign ministry sources say the Foreign Office is currently preparing a list of in-service nominees that would include serving diplomats.

Names of the serving ambassadors and additional secretaries are also likely to be short-listed and forwarded to the president and the prime minister for a final decision, say sources in the foreign office.

A list of the political-appointee probables including former diplomats will be drawn-up jointly in the prime minister’s secretariat and the presidency, well-placed sources said.

While in-house consultations are being kept under wraps, several service and non-service names are in circulation. There are no indications as yet of who leads the race among foreign service officials, or of a name that dominates the discussions.

The serving spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan was recently interviewed by Indian channel ‘Aaj Tak’ run by India Today and asked whether he was being posted as High Commissioner to New Delhi. Aziz Khan is due for retirement in three months.

Among the retired lot, names of two former foreign secretaries, Inamul Haq and Najmuddin Sheikh, are being discussed unofficially. During his tenure as foreign secretary Inamul Haq was present at the historic Agra Summit and participated in the draft of the aborted Agra Declaration. Akram Zaki yet another former foreign secretary-general’s name is being mentioned, even if somewhat non-seriously.

Among the non-service people there has been speculation in one Indian paper about Pakistan’s former ambassador to Washington Dr Maleeha Lodhi. However, as reported in the local press she has already been tipped as ambassador to Britain. Another name that seems to be coming up, albeit in select circles, is that of the articulate PML-Q Senator Mushahid Hussain.