20 January 2005	Thursday	09 Zilhaj 1425

ISLAMABAD, Jan 19: Pakistan's current ambassador to China Riaz Mohammad Khan will replace Riaz Khokhar as Pakistan's new foreign secretary next month, it is reliably learnt.

The appointment orders for Riaz Mohammad Khan as the new foreign secretary were issued by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz last week, well-placed sources told Dawn on Wednesday.

Mr Khokhar, who completed his tenure on Dec 31, has been asked to continue in office till the 13th Saarc Summit which is scheduled for Feb 6 to 7 in Dhaka, the sources said. Reportedly the prime minister also wants Mr Khokhar to accompany him on his official visit to Iran later next month.

Mr Khan is expected to take charge in the second half of April. Mr Khan, a seasoned career diplomat, is considered a thorough professional. He has rich experience in multilateral diplomacy and his first posting abroad was in Beijing which now will also be his last.

He has served as ambassador to Belgium and Kazakhstan and held important position at the Pakistan mission in New York. In May 2003 his name topped the list of candidates nominated by the Foreign Office for the key diplomatic slot of Pakistan's High Commissioner to India.

However, the government eventually decided not to recall him from Beijing where he had been posted as ambassador less than a year ago. Riaz Khan also served briefly as the Foreign Office spokesman at a critical juncture following the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the US landmarks in New York and Washington.

In the eighties, he was resident scholar at the Georgetown University in Washington DC. He is also author of a book, 'Untying the Afghan knot'. The book is on the Geneva round of Pakistan-Soviet proxy talks which led to the end of Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

Originally, a mathematics teacher at the Punjab University, Mr Khan has penchant for poetry and Urdu literature. His wife, an American national, has been employed with the US State Department. She is currently working at the Department's Foreign Service Training Institute in Washington.

Meanwhile, Foreign Ministry's Additional secretary, Asia Pacific, Salman Bashir is learnt to have been nominated by the Foreign Office to replace Riaz Khan as Pakistan's ambassador in Beijing. However, his name still awaits the Prime Minister's approval.

There is Also talk of the additional secretary taking over the ambassadorial assignment in New Delhi. Pakistan's present High Commissioner to India Aziz Ahmed Khan is due to retire in August.