ISLAMABAD, Sept 17: With the designation of General (retd) Jehangir Karamat as ambassador to Washington, the number of non-career diplomats posted abroad has risen to 18, the National Assembly was informed on Friday.

In response to MNA Abid Sher Ali's question, Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri provided the list of non-career diplomats. The list includes the name of the High Commissioner to New Delhi, Mr Aziz Ahmed Khan, among the non-career diplomats.

However, when contacted, foreign office sources said that Mr Khan was a career diplomat who had been in the foreign service for a long time but was given the post after retirement from service.

The ministry of foreign affairs can post 256 officers in BPS-17 to BPS-22 in the country's 102 missions abroad (embassies, high commissions, consulates-general and consulates). The number of staff in Pakistan's missions totals 1,406 - 540 local staff, 610 in BPS-1 to BPS-16, and 256 in BPS-17 to BPS-22.

The record provided to the National Assembly showed that 10 out of the 18 non-career diplomats were retired military officers. They are: Air Marshal (retd) Muhammad Farooq Qari, Tripoli; Lt-Gen (retd) Agha Jehangir Ali Khan, Mexico; Admiral (retd) Abdul Aziz Mirza, Riyadh; Air Marshal (retd) Syed Qaiser Hussain, Abu Dhabi; Maj-Gen (retd) Syed Mustafa Hussain, Jakarta; Major (retd) Badruddin Hussain, Brunei; Maj-Gen (retd) Sabihuddin Bokhari, Bahrain; Maj-Gen (retd) Talat Munir, Kuala Lumpur; and Maj-Gen (retd) Taj-ul-Haq, Kiev.

The other non-career diplomats in Pakistan's missions are: Rustam Shah Mohmand, Kabul; Maleeha Lodhi, London; Mirza Qamar Beg, Rome; Syed Zahid Hussain, Nairobi; Nawab Amir Abdul Rehman Nosherwani, Sana'a; Mir Hussain Bakhsh Bangulzai, Bangkok; and Bashir Wali Mohamand, Colombo.